I finally took the plunge and deleted my Facebook account...and all my games. Well, technically I haven't deleted the account yet, but I did delete all my friends except for Brennan so nothing would appear in my feed--it felt too weird to delete my husband. But I'll delete the account once I create new log in info for all the other things I have associated with Facebook. I've been thinking about it for a long time and did it for a number of reasons.
-the people I care to keep in contact with I don't actually keep in contact with through Facebook. It's usually through insta, phone calls, emails, blogs, and texts.
-I promise I'm not paranoid, but I'm trying to minimize my web existence. I'll just leave it at that for now.
-it got to the point where it was more of a source of time wasting and self-deprecating than connecting with humans I love. You know all those articles like "ten things happy people do", "five keys to a happy marriage", "how to identify your true friends", "are you an introvert or extrovert? Quiz!"? Sometimes I would find myself reading them and allowing some stranger somewhere with no authority as far as I'm concerned tell me how I should live my life. and then I would remember, wait, i am happy, and i have an extremely happy marriage, the best marriage in the world! And who cares if I'm an introvert or extrovert? That does not change the fact that I am just trying to be a Christlike person. Besides, the only person who really knows me, really knows what I need to do to be happy, is God. And he tells me how I should live my life through scriptures, prophets, my thoughts, and the amazing people around me. Besides, he has way more knowledge than buzzfeed.
-"creativity is a gift. It doesnt come through if the air is cluttered." -john lennon.
for myself, for my husband, and for my children, I want absence (meaning I don't have to look at my phone at start doing something as soon as I have a moment to think) and solitude so that there is room for creativity. I want them to decide what they will become and what is valuable to them, I don't want those things to be decided for them by images and the influence of the mass media that surrounds them.
"as we embrace a technology's gifts, we usually fail to consider what they ask from us in return-the subtle, hardly noticeable payments we make in exchange for their marvelous service. We don't notice, for example, that the gaps in our schedules have disappeared because we're too busy delighting in the amusements that fill them. We forget the games that childhood boredom forged because boredom itself has been outlawed." Michael Harris from his book the end of absence: reclaiming what we've lost in a world of constant connection.
It may not be this way for a lot of people, but for me to be absent and allow creativity to flow, take control of my thoughts, and who I am trying to become, deleting Facebook was one small step in that direction. And you know what, I've been absent from Facebook for over two weeks now, without games on my phone for a month, and I don't feel a sense of loss at all. In the meantime you can reach me here, my cell phone, my email, Instagram. Because let's face it, In this age of communication, I do not need Facebook to keep in contact with people.
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