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Thursday, February 4, 2016

Why I got off Facebook and have loved every minute of it!



Last March admit our second miscarriage I was aimlessly scrolling through my Facebook news feed when I decided I had had enough. I deactivated it that day and stayed off until I rejoined for a week this fall, remembered why I left...left again and have loved every free minute not spent on it. I am encouraging you to do the same, believe me...it will make you a happier person!

I joined Facebook (circa 2005?) to connect with friends and family near and far. I have lived a couple different cities and countries during my studies and it was such a great way to keep and touch and share with my closest peeps.

Somewhere over the years however it grew... It grew into somewhere that anyone you had a class with, met at a party once, knew a friend of yours, became your Facebook "friend" with access to all your info. I used Facebook to share photos and life and suddenly I felt self conscious about all these people I didn't know well, having access to anything I posted. 

I slowly removed "friends" (people I did a project with once or don't talk to) and eventually upped it to anyone I wouldn't stop and chat with if I saw at the mall. This brought the amount down, but still there was something no longer satisfying about the platform.

This past year was certainly my most difficult and what I found on Facebook was a whole bunch of phony-baloney, that left me feeling worse than I did before I logged on. (Not to mention all the garbage ads, stupid videos and other crap that now fills up your news feed.)

Everywhere I turned people were loading their happy pregnancy announcement and it made our struggle seem more difficult. This is not to say I was not happy for friends and their exciting news, rather it was that Facebook presents on this small, seemingly perfect view of people rather then the truth. For me it seemed all these people had it so easy when in reality their journey to this happy moment may have been a struggle.

Mark Zuckerberg posted this pregnancy announcement with the back story of their journey, which I thought was really refreshing. In this world of social media if we share honestly more than just a perfect glimpse of our lives we may actually find people we can connect with and share in the good and not so good times.

I should clarify that I am not down with the people who take this to the other end of the scale and post their ever changing relationship status and use it to expose things that should be kept at home. You know what I mean, we all had a someone on our list that did this lol

 Plus now facebook is full of ads and filler garbage...what are you really getting from it?! #nothing 

This all still applies if you are not struggling from infertility. No one needs 900 likes on a picture, or maybe you do, but trust me do a break and see how wonderful life is without it! You get to run into people who say "did you hear...?" and you can genuinely say "no, I didn't tell me!" (It is exciting!) You can find other things to do with your online time...like blogging or pinterest.  Maybe you are thinking "Yes I can do this", but your next hesitation may be people won't be able to contact you or you will miss out on invites from the group convos, TRUST me - people will find you elsewhere and you will be free of mile long ridiculous group convos! #canigetanamen!

So go deactivate and be happy 2016!

* I should say I do use and love Instagram. The difference to me is its a clean slate of close friends you can have follow you, it's just pictures and I think it's a more honest, snap shot of daily life and memories. It's less complicated, less time sucking and more enjoyable then Facebook. The other great things is being able to follow bloggers and celebrities or companies that you like. I hope I don't sound hypocritical but there is my 2 cents.*


1 comment:

  1. Love you heaps and know all good things will come your way :) P.S. Not having facebook is so peaceful :)

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