Photo by Rennett Stowe
My husband recently emailed me the link to a New York Times op-ed entitled Facebook Exodus. With it, he wrote in jest: “Maybe we are on the cutting edge of cool . . . it seems the coolest may be leaving Facebook. And we never even joined.”
Yes, I’m one of those; I’ve resisted Facebook. And yes, I’ve taken some heat for it. At times, my ambivalence has left me feeling guilty (when my family posts pictures), but not guilty enough to add this online social network to my to-do list. I’m already pulled in too many directions, and like many of you, I’m struggling to find the balance between connecting and disconnecting. It’s just too easy to crack open my laptop and to have the world at my fingertips: Oh, I’ll just check this one thing. This one blog. This one online shop. This one . . . An hour later, I’m kicking myself for not having opened a book, the same one I’ve been trying to finish since July.
This isn’t about Facebook. It’s about knowing where to draw the line and asking: Is how I’m choosing to spend my time really what I want?
I am not suggesting that we completely unplug. Most of us wouldn’t want that. Instead, we’d like to reclaim the wasted hours. The bottom line is this: There are only 24 hours in a day, and last I checked, God isn’t adding an extra hour. Our challenge is to strike a balance that we can live with and to use our time well. We text, we tweet, we friend, we google, we even send virtual drinks. Let’s face it, we’re tweeting what’s for dinner, and we’ve invited Big Brother to sit at the table. Is this really what we want?
joanna says:
So strange I should read this today – I was thinking while in the shower this morning that it might be time to get off facebook. I don’t do all the silly quizzes or send people virtual cacti, but I still waste precious time there. But because I link new posts there, most of my blog readers are FB friends… don’t really want to give that up. But must. unplug. more. often.
joanna ´s last blog ..Difficult decisions
September 25, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Megan at Simple Kids says:
I’m the same way about Twitter. FB, for some reason, I can handle. I can check it quickly and move on with life. On Twitter, I find a BAZILLION links and great conversations going on and I just get sucked in. I know I *should* be using it for the purpose of building community, but like you said, I have found I just have to draw the line somewhere!
September 28, 2009 at 10:17 am
Stacie @ newmommyhelp.net says:
It’s a good question to ask. Am I pleased with the ways I choose to spend my time?
I agree with Megan. Facebook is not a problem for me. I live far away from all of my family and seeing their pictures and knowing what’s going on in their lives is important to me. Keeps me from being miserably homesick.
Where I can get sucked in is reading blogs. I have to force myself to stick to a set time or just fast from blogs altogether when I find myself wasting time. I’m glad I took 5 minutes to stop by here today though:).
Stacie @ newmommyhelp.net´s last blog ..How to Have a More Content Baby
October 1, 2009 at 2:20 pm