Bringing it Back

Just a quick little post to say I am bringing it back.  I mean this in many ways.  I am bringing back this blog, for this year of Lent, as I am giving up Facebook again.  It has taken two whole years to feel this yearning, and I am happy for the Lenten season, because it gives me an inspiration to turn off the social media, whereas on my own, I'm not sure I would be motivated enough.  Sad but true. 

I am bringing it back to my family.  That is where my focus should remain, and I have been too easily distracted and while my family obviously hasn't suffered due to social media, I honestly think I could be doing a better job without it.  We are called to be the Church at home, and I am not living up to the example set to me by the Holy Family.

I am bringing it back to me.  I am too easily sucked into reading about others and comparing myself.  I know this is a rehash of the last time I did it, but here I find myself again.  Also, I am more than a sum of my facebook status updates, and I need the reminder for myself. 

I am bringing it back to my friends.  My real ones.  The ones who make an effort to stay in touch when I don't make it so convenient.  It is easy to stay in touch these days, with so many ways.  Even without facebook, it is still easy in this day and age of technology.  We have many methods, email, phone, text message, etc.  I am guilty of this myself.  I will quickly "talk" to people on facebook. I ask them about things, comment on their things, like their pictures, etc.  But outside of facebook?  Do I make the effort to tell them I am thinking about them?  Do I really take the time out of my day and my busy life to ask how they are, or keep up with their goings on?  The answer is no, I don't.  I fear it is this fact that keeps people at bay from other people.  To me, and this is just my opinion, and it may change in the future, facebook is causing my relationships outside of my family to become very impersonal.  I don't need to call and see how your family is when I can just look at your page when I am already on the computer looking at other peoples lives.  I don't need to invite you over when I am already up to date and feeling social satisfaction through the computer screen.  I can't tell you how many times I can remember an event or something that happened to a facebook friend, but I can't remember who it was.  That's not right.

How many people read my status updates and are friendly with me, but yet, if I am not on facebook, they don't even think of me enough to contact me?  That tells me that I am sharing with the wrong people.  The simple solution would be to unfriend everyone I don't interact with outside of facebook.  I am not sure I can do that, to be completely honest.  I have cut down my friends list in the past, and I have seen it creep back up.  I know I don't interact with 190 people on a regular basis.  I worry about hurting someone's feelings, missing out on something important, and let's face it, I am just as guilty of social voyeurism as most people.  I'm not sure what I will do about that in the long run.

So, for now, I am bringing it back.  I will post my blog posts to facebook (ironically, right?) because I have been requested by some to do so, and because I do have friends and family and maybe what I learn can help someone else.  I hope if you read, you will take the time out of your life to tell me you are thinking about me, and that you will provide me with the means to do the same to you, by giving me contact information.

I'll be back on Facebook after Easter.  Have a blessed Lenten season!