The time has come!

It's been awhile since I've sat down to do this.  I've thought about sitting down to write so often, but one of two things always happens… first, I get interrupted or second, distracted.  It is the second reason that I sit down to write (type) this post.  Here is the nutshell version:

I am so damn tired of living in a distracted and moody state that I have decided to rid myself of any type of social media for good.  Not just temporarily.  Not just for now.  For good.

Now the typical, drawn out, genetically predisposed "Corey" version:

For starters, this is not a "lesson".  I am not writing to voice my arrogance or for neediness for others to agree with me.  I am not writing so people fluff me with complements or learn any sort of life lesson from me.  I am overloaded with articles and blogs like that daily and I've resorted to rolling my eyes.  See what I mean by my nutshell version?  I am writing because it brings me joy.  A joy I have for so long gone without because I'm too busy with things that fill my head with garbage and bust my good moods (BTW, B… your post yesterday was awesome and brought me extreme joy and as always, Aleisa's do too :).

I have been toying with leaving social media (Facebook) for a long time.  I know that it is a big time waster and can be overly addicting for me.  I will acknowledge what my sister pointed out yesterday…it keeps my very large extended family connected in a way we never were before.  I'm closer to my cousins now more than I ever was and I get to see pictures of my growing nieces and nephews often.  There are posts and pictures that make me laugh daily.  I can wish someone a happy birthday and when Nora was alive, I knew when something went wrong by her mother's prayer requests.  I don't watch the news or read the paper so it was through FB that I learned of Pope Francis's family tragedy yesterday and added him, and them, to my prayers today.  These are all wonderful ways to use Facebook and social media in general and why I struggle to come to the decision to exit this virtual world.  Also, I think my kids are damn cute and I think all 400 plus of my "friends" need to see them!

But then there is the dark side of Facebook for ME.

When I look at my attitude about others and life in general, there has been a definite shift over the last 6 years.  Oh it has been subtle, but it is large scale.  I was born an optimistic and happy person.  Ask my parents… I was a delightful and happy child (miserably bad teen) and grew into a generally happy adult.  But when I step back and evaluate a day in my life now, I see a cynical and negative outlook that I can only attribute to adopting from how I see others lives displayed through social media.  It isn't THEIR fault.  It's mine.  Let's face it, people put their best selves forward in public.  And when I KNOW it's fake, it enrages me.  But WHY?  Why the heck should I care what hat someone else decides to wear for the whole world to see?  I don't know.  I really don't.  But I do.

That is not all though.  There are people I like a lot, or I should say did like, before FB.  Now it's all I can do to shake my head and mutter "asshole" when they post their political or religious (or lack their of in this case) views by copying and pasting them on the homepage.  These things are posted as gospel or proof of their point when they come from sources like Huffington Post or Buzzfeed.  So I leave my computer in a rotten mood and pissed off at the poor misguided soul who posted.  And who, by the way, lives across the country and could give a rats ass.  So who loses?  Him?  Nope.  I do and so does my family.  People will say, "Well there is an unfriend button!"  What??  Wait a minute.  No, I am not going to go through my friends list "unfriending" people.  Just the word "unfriend" is wrong and mean.   It is the opposite of how we are supposed to live, right?  If you happen to friend someone who is obscene and rude or extra stupid, just block their posts.  It's quite easy really.  Seriously, I'd have like 10 friends if I "unfriended" everyone who annoyed me.  The exceptions are Pope Francis and Fr. Robert Jack (he's cynical and cracks me up and super spot on) and my Uncle Buzz.  There are a few others too, but I can't remember  (uh, anyone who corners me and asks :)  The rest of y'all?  Annoying.

The bad is outweighing the good in my case and I thank God for the wisdom to help me see this.  Though my faith has grown by leaps and bounds through the years, my soul is (and always will be) in need of some desperate work.  And no doubt, the devil is hard at work in this case and is very sly… making me think I NEED to keep up on current events in the lives of my family (HELLO?? Telephone call, anyone?) and friends.  That is the lure used to keep me chained to social media, which in turn also allows me to also see things that make me angry and unkind or tempt me to make fun of people who are just dumb on Facebook.  God certainly did not create me to be that person.  I no longer want to spend lunches with friends, long runs or precious alone time with my husband talking about the stupidity or what I think is the sad or fake lives of others.  So screw you, Satan.  Game over.

I think I will make it in my new caveman world of simple texts and phone calls.  I will admit that it will be really hard for me to do this as I love to scroll down the FB homepage and take a peek at the lives (real or fake) of others.  And if I have a super cute picture of my kids, I'll text it to one of my sisters to post their GORGEOUS nieces and nephews.

PS… John, totally hitting that grocery store now like I said I was…