A few months ago I deactivated. Here are a few observations……
Up-Side:
* I can connect with all sorts of friends and family that I’d normally never see or hear from. Obviously this can be good or bad but for me it is really good since I live far from any family.
* For some people F-book provides a safe environment to practice communication skills which help them relate better in real-life settings.
* F-book can be great if you need to find out about an event that you wouldn’t otherwise know about. I did miss out on a few parties because I wasn’t on F-book.
* F-book can be great if you need to find out if you have any friends in a specific city. About a year ago I got to stay in New York for a week all because of F-book. I posted a comment asking if anyone was in New York and one of my best-friends sisters invited me over.
Ezekiel 8:12 (ESV)
Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures?
Down-Side:
* The ability to be fully-present is an attractive quality. Staring at a screen with multiple faces can seep into an inability to admire just one person. Does people watching devalue person watching?
* It only takes a few click until I’m on a page that I shouldn’t be on. Reading some post that fills my mind with useless information.
* Pseudo relationships. Fbook projects the side of people that they think is most desirable. It is our ‘hoped-for-self’. We have other images we’d never upload.
* I think there is something about f-book which causes me to feel like I should be doing more. It is hard not to compare myself. At the same time, f-book is no fad and it won’t be going away soon.
And with all of that. There are some very real and good reasons to be on f-book. This video that a friend sent me highlights a few.
I’m glad to be back on and I’m hoping to utilize F-book in an honorable way. Deactivating it helped me to deactivate some negative tendencies in hopes of being reborn to a better way of booking.
Be a light and not a vacuum. Don’t let others get your fun for you.
