Farewell Facebook

First off, this will clearly be the last post I share on Facebook, so if you are enjoying my writing, feel free to subscribe :)

Second, yes I am very aware that I skipped E, I'll fix it later but I really wanted to write F and it’s my blog so you don’t get to tell me what to do.  I shall not lie I also am getting a bit of joy out of messing with all you OCD people until I write E!

Third, I'm very irritated that the Lord of the Rings There and Back Again font letter F looks a lot more like the letter E, but I guess I have to accept their artistic font choices and move on with life.

So here it is: I am saying farewell to Facebook. Forever? Maybe, but for now yes.  I have wanted to do this since I read my old friends blog post about doing so (its currently down but I’ll try to share if she brings it back up, wonderful blog and huge inspiration for me starting this).  This was months ago and I never had the guts.  Why?  Well I really like it.  Truthfully my drug of choice is actually Instagram, so I’m quitting that as well but it doesn’t start with F so it didn’t get to be a part of the title.

What is my reasoning behind doing so you may ask?  I have many, but first and foremost I have realized just how much time I waste on there.  I’ve known for a long time that there are hundreds of reasons to quit social media, but I, like most of you probably do, have a slight addiction. Take this excerpt from the promices.com website,

“In 2013, a study linked the intensity of Facebook use to the level of activity in the nucleus accumbens (the brain’s “reward” system), in particular, drawing the link to the part of the reward center associated with maintaining our social reputation. Additional research established that compulsive Internet use leads to changes in the brain—particularly in reward pathways—comparable to those observed in drug addicts.”

About 2 years ago I actually gave an entire speech about the negative effects of smart phones on us in many ways.  If you’re curious here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAOkWACJ1Yw&t=273s


Honestly, just a quick Google search of ‘quit social media’ brings up HUNDREDS of results.  We’ve all heard of things like ‘insta vs. reality’ and how Facebook is just a highlight reel of everyone’s life designed to make us feel bad about our own, so I’m not going to delve into those.  I just want to share my main personal reasons for saying farewell.

Reasons upon reasons to quit, and I just have never wanted to.  However, lately I have been doing a lot of thinking, and after a few messages I received recently, I’ve decided I might be better off without it.  I do spend more time than I'd care to admit on these platforms and today I spend the day asking if that was really adding anything important to my life, or was I just killing time?  The answer I found was that I was just killing time, and killing a LOT of it.  I say I’m bored, so I go right to my phone, that’s how I fill my excessive amounts of free time that I currently have.  I’m even worse with Hulu and Netflix.  (I have watched 19 seasons of America’s Next Top Model in the last year… I am not proud of that and I intend to tackle this as well but let’s focus on F for the purpose of this post).

Now don’t get me wrong, Facebook is not all bad and in my internal argument over this decision, my brain supplied many reasons to keep it.

Being a military brat, it has allowed me to keep in contact and/or find people from my past and stay connected with them.

It allows me to see pictures of friends and loved ones and their adventures.

It helps me when I’m in a pinch and forgot pants and desperately need to find a female jock at that track to ask if I can borrow her pants and don’t have any phone numbers.

The only reason anyone has ever read this blog other than my immediate family is because I shared it on Facebook.

But then I look at the negative things.

Wasted time.

It’s often not a good depiction of real life.

People can contact and/or pursue me that really I’d rather not be accessible to.

Crack is whack people; I’m not keen on the idea of an addiction to anything.

True, I may have caught cheating boyfriends as well as found out other useful things, but those discoveries also took a lot of effort that I’m no longer willing to put forth.  I’m ready to accept that there are good and bad things are going to happen that will be important for me to know, but odds are I will find out one way or another. The stress of looking for subtleties on social media to clue me in a day or 2 earlier than I probably would’ve found out anyways, is exhausting and just not worth it.  It’s added stress.  That’s what it all boils down to, extra stress that I want to see if quitting relieves in any way, because we could all do with a little less stress.

I ask myself, is this contributing to my life?  Is this making me a better rider?  A better friend? A better human?  A more productive member of society? Is it making me happier?  And right now the answer to all of those things is no.  Will this be permanent?  We shall see!

I have 569 Facebook friends and 57 unanswered requests.  At the beginning of the year I had over 2000 friends and I deleted a great deal, but the number still grows.  Especially being an athlete, I get messages from people all over the country, from the industry, gamblers, fans, you name it, and I know nowadays public figures are supposed to have an active presence with the media, but it’s just not for me.  I struggle with the friend requests because sometimes it is a person I know of or have met once or twice, but where do you draw the line between who is your ‘friend’ enough for Facebook friend status?  If I deny them, am I rude?  But if I give them permission, then they have full access to stalk the shit out of me, and having stalked the shit out of people myself on occasion, you can find out way more than you really need to about a person you hardly know, and I just don’t love that.

My phone has 140 contacts.  That is what I want.  If we are really friends then lets trade numbers, lets chat, send me those sweet pics of your vacation, I wanna see the adorable pics of that puppy or your kid or whatever it is you may be sharing on Facebook.  If you want me to see it, send it! 

Call me!! I used to be the absolute worst… I would literally make my mom write me a script if I ever had to call someone for ANY reason.  She will vouch for that... it was ridiculous.  But more and more I find myself wanting to actually pick up the phone because texting is exhausting and again, wasting my time.  I truly think I’m going to be a way more productive person with this experiment; I want to try at least.  But still I feel chastised for this, there have been many times where I want to talk to someone who’s not answering my texts and I am frustrated waiting and waiting and all I want to do it CALL.  The things is, then I feel like this

(BTW THIS IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS, IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN A VERY POTTER MUSICAL AND A VERY POTTER SEQUEL DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO NOW)

When ALL I WANTED was to know if you wanted to get some damn tacos with me tonight or not and it would've taken 30 seconds instead of a 3 hours back and forth texting debacle....

So if any of my friends read this, I give you full and complete permission to call me (I'm still awkward on the phone but its improving and not personal), tell me bout the awesome things you’re doing on Facebook if they are really that awesome (shout out to Michele, you da bomb at this, I love that we actually talk on the phone).  And if we live close, let’s chat, let’s get coffee, let’s be real friends not Facebook friends. Or ya’ll can just read this blog from afar, whatever works for ya.  And to the rest of you who didn't read this and I shall be disappearing from your lives as I exit social media, then good riddance: p

Adios!