This year for Lent I decided to give up my unacknowledged addiction to Facebook, and I must say, it's been one of the most eye-opening experiences I've had in a while. I will be the first to admit, initially it was hard. I didn't realize how habitual it was for me to click on that little 'F' button on my iphone, or unconsciously log on from my computer when talking on the phone at work. The first few days I felt like an addict going thru a withdrawal spell. Then, almost as unconsciously as the one-sided relationship had developed, I realized that it was no longer significant for me to have my 'Newsfeed' fix.
I learned I didn't miss the drama either. There was no love lost from seeing the 'friends' that pretend to be close to others with insanely smothering posts of adulation and affection, while stabbing in the back those same people any time they have an audience. I didn't miss the self-absorbed posts of how people were spending their every-milli-second of their day, trying to out-post their list of cyber friends with how great their lives were or what they were doing. I felt like the chatter in my head subsided a little. I wasn't caught up in keeping up with the lives of others, and have been focusing on things in my own life that I want to achieve or overcome.
What's even more ironic is, as I went thru this Facebook cleanse, it became even more apparent how many people are ruled by the details floating around in the cyber world. Someone else had actually noticed that another friend of mine was seemingly 'snubbing' me lately and actually made a comment about it to me. Since I haven't been active on Facebook, I couldn't really ascertain why someone else would come to that conclusion...and it's even more ironic that that is how microscopic our lives have become in this internet age.
The one thing that became crystal clear thru this 40 day cleanse....I'd rather have one TRUE friend instead of 500 FAKE ones.
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