I know it's been a while since I made a blog entry on here. I always say to myself- "You should blog about that." or "Today I'm going to blog.", and then it never happens. I actively made time for it today! - My last entry was about my break from Facebook. I literally deleted my account and was off Facebook, including Facebook Messenger, for over a year. So, I thought it would only be fitting after a long "break" (or more like a spell of laziness) of blogging, to start back up with where I'm at with Facebook today.
I was away from Facebook for over a year. I deleted my account in August 2015 and I re-activated it on Thanksgiving Day of November 2016. You can read more about my perspective of my time away from Facebook in my last post. I have no regrets about leaving it. So, why get back on it? Family. My family uses Facebook a lot and they wanted to connect with me on a video call and apparently Facebook is the app/service they knew how to use/had. When it comes to family, I'm not going to hesitate.
Being back on Facebook was kind of like walking back into high school -a little strange, but familiar. Took a bit to adjust to the changes both from the actual platform and the way people interacted on it now, but really not much had changed. Facebook is still that place that people seem to think voicing their opinions in a negative, whining, self-righteous tone is useful and being viewed by the most influential people in the world, which of course, it's not. After being a way from Facebook for a while, it was really easy to see how many people will never get over the trap that Facebook has become. By "trap", I mean the time disposal that it is. I literally sat at work yesterday and watched a guy scroll through Facebook for 20 minutes straight and that's how he spent his "15 minute" break. He never even commented or posted anything, but Facebook somehow makes people believe they are on the "up-and-up" by staying in the "know" of whatever interests, cliques, or hobbies they have. I'm on Facebook a few times a week to post. I don't feel the need to update my life all the time on that all too often drama machine. After my break, I realized I really didn't miss anything. I didn't miss the actions of posting or updating with pictures and "status". I didn't miss out on anything happening in the world.
On the flipside, I do post on Instagram a lot. I found myself surfing that a lot when I broke away from Facebook, but it was easy to catch myself after a while. I'm not against social media. It has it's purposes. You can quickly find out information from companies and your hobbies/interests. As a snail mailer, I found Instagram to be very helpful in locating pen pals and sharing and gaining tips. I've even traded with several people for things I collect using Instagram. I use Facebook more to shop and find out about independent artists I like then anything else. I'm in a generation that started with the new age of interaction with technology and I embrace the positives it gives. I just started to notice the negatives of it as well and decided to personally do something about it. It's so easy to get lost, hooked on, or caught up in a corner of the web that creates a false escape, but honestly all you're doing is missing out on what reality actually has and it's pretty great out here in the real world.
Really, it's not just Facebook or even Instagram. It's social media as a whole. Facebook is the most popular platform of them all and as I said before, it's become this virtual world for whiners and drama-lovers. Twitter is no different though, as it has become a celebrity battlefield. Even Tumblr is filled with internet trolls. I would challenge anyone who spends the majority of time on their phones, computers, tables, or laptops to give themselves a month without using the majority of apps, games, and internet usage that they normally use daily. See how your life and perspective changes! Or don't. It really doesn't bother me either way. It's your life. I just feel that sometimes refreshing yourself is more helpful than refreshing your browser.