I just signed into Facebook. After a few weeks of my Facebook account being deactivated, I signed in with the sole intention of trying to plan my birthday celebrations for next year.
I also need to rally some troops to work in the Haunted Woods this year. And I wanted to round some people up to go see Dracula with me either this or next weekend.
All of this seemed like it would be easier through Facebook...
But after signing in, I was just overwhelmed with this sense of panic. I could feel how easily it would twist painfully back into the threads of my life and take over... I felt it's power. I know that sounds melodramatic and ridiculous, but I'm being totally serious. I felt the resentment of seeing everyone posting smiling pictures with their friends and all these statuses about happy excursions they've been on and how wonderful their life is going and I felt my heart immediately harden with jealousy and resentment. My fingers itched to start bragging about all the good things that have been happening to me recently, wondering what angle I can tell the tales from to make them sound morei mpressive and interesting so people would "like" it and thus "like" me...
I felt that astounding pressure to compare and compete with my "friends" that aren't real friends, just Facebook friends, which are not the same thing at all...
It honestly scared me...
I'm never going back to Facebook. I just can't. It depressed me, and made me feel inferior to my friends and instead of feeling happy for their accomplishments, I always resented that they have so many close friends to hang out with and cool places to go and awesome things to do. I never seem to have those things and I hate feeling jealousy and resentment toward my friends. Yes, one can sometimes be jealous of a friend, but not this kind of jealousy. Not a jealousy that immediately makes me want to one-up someone who I consider a good friend!
That's all Facebook is, you drones! It's a chance to watch people from afar, judge them, and attempt to one-up them. It may be subtle, you may not even realize it, but it's all right there in front of you, with every status you post. Sure, people use the excuse that it's the best and easiest way to keep in touch with friends who live far away, but guess what... Facebook is NOT interpersonal communication. It isn't even personal communication. It simply isn't. It reduces you to so many characters, it reduces you to drop-box menu options. That can't explain a human, it can't define or represent a life or personality. And yet millions of people, intelligent people, are sucked in to believing it does.
I was on Facebook for barely five minutes and all of this raced through my brain. Facebook scares me now. I'm glad I have managed to wrench myself out of it's clutches. Take back humanity. Take back personality. Take back LIFE. Don't let Zuckerburg and other computer programmers tell you what it is to be human by giving you specific ways to express yourself. Be yourself, don't forget who that is.
When you're ready to really communicate, human to human, body to body, mind to mind, heart to heart, soul to soul... call me. I'd love to speak to you and experience you. I don't want to see what your day's accomplishments added up to in status updates... I want to see the gleam in your eyes when you smile and tell me about a joke that made you laugh. I want to hear the rise in your voice as you passionately tell a story that made you feel something, I want to feel your fingertips grip my arm at the exciting bits....
I can't experience that through Facebook, there's no code for the programmers to insert into the layout that will make you come to life on that screen for me. I'm living now. You should be, too.
If this intrigues you in any way, I HIGHLY recommend the book "You Are Not a Gadget". It's amazingly insightful and sheds true light on our ever devolving culture.
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