•9:50 PM
June 8, 2010 9:50 p.m.
I just quit my Facebook account. Or to use the proper term, I deactivated it. For awhile I have had the gnawing feeling that I need to disengage from my virtual world somewhat. Then I read this article in the NY Times yesterday and I found I could relate somewhat. No, I am not nearly as bad off as some of the folks used as examples in this article, but I have been feeling the mental effects of too much "virtual" in my life. It was time I curtailed it some.
Not to mention the fact that Facebook has had a deleterious effect on the content of this blog. Oh horrors! I had gotten used to writing up life in little snippets of under 200 characters or so. My writing had lostmuch all of its reflective quality.
Oh, and not to mention that I have been feeling uncomfortable with the parallel nature of my mental life. I don't want to think and do things in parallel anymore, or at least I want to minimize it (some is unavoidable when you're a Mommy.) I want to become sequential again. In fact, it has been getting more difficult for me to concentrate on tasks that are sequential, and I have had to go out of my way to pause and think about what I am doing as a step-by-step process so that I can stay focused. I thought it was due to aging. Maybe yes, but after reading this article, I see it is also possible that my virtual life has had something to do with it.
I can totally relate to the experience (cited in the article) of interrupting my own absorbing, important, and often urgent task because I caught a headline out of the corner of my eye such as "Man Found Dead inside His Business" and I had to stop what I was doing and check it out. It is getting more difficult to filter out the unimportant and irrelevant. Scary.
Have any of you ever tried to deactivate a Facebook account? First of all, when you try to do it, you are given a guilt trip: large photos of six of your Facebook friends telling you that they will "miss you". HA HA HA! That's funny! Then you are asked to give a reason why you are deactivating your account. When you select a reason, it quickly flashes a suggestion as to how to improve your Facebook experience so that this reason is no longer a problem to you. Again, HA HA HA! It also reminds you that your Facebook lifestyle eternally awaits; all you have to do is say your email address and password, and Abracadabra, your account and all your Facebook friends can be restored at any time. Whenever you come to your senses and decide to return. This is too much, my friends.
Facebook. You can check out anytime. But you can never leave.
I just quit my Facebook account. Or to use the proper term, I deactivated it. For awhile I have had the gnawing feeling that I need to disengage from my virtual world somewhat. Then I read this article in the NY Times yesterday and I found I could relate somewhat. No, I am not nearly as bad off as some of the folks used as examples in this article, but I have been feeling the mental effects of too much "virtual" in my life. It was time I curtailed it some.
Not to mention the fact that Facebook has had a deleterious effect on the content of this blog. Oh horrors! I had gotten used to writing up life in little snippets of under 200 characters or so. My writing had lost
Oh, and not to mention that I have been feeling uncomfortable with the parallel nature of my mental life. I don't want to think and do things in parallel anymore, or at least I want to minimize it (some is unavoidable when you're a Mommy.) I want to become sequential again. In fact, it has been getting more difficult for me to concentrate on tasks that are sequential, and I have had to go out of my way to pause and think about what I am doing as a step-by-step process so that I can stay focused. I thought it was due to aging. Maybe yes, but after reading this article, I see it is also possible that my virtual life has had something to do with it.
I can totally relate to the experience (cited in the article) of interrupting my own absorbing, important, and often urgent task because I caught a headline out of the corner of my eye such as "Man Found Dead inside His Business" and I had to stop what I was doing and check it out. It is getting more difficult to filter out the unimportant and irrelevant. Scary.
Have any of you ever tried to deactivate a Facebook account? First of all, when you try to do it, you are given a guilt trip: large photos of six of your Facebook friends telling you that they will "miss you". HA HA HA! That's funny! Then you are asked to give a reason why you are deactivating your account. When you select a reason, it quickly flashes a suggestion as to how to improve your Facebook experience so that this reason is no longer a problem to you. Again, HA HA HA! It also reminds you that your Facebook lifestyle eternally awaits; all you have to do is say your email address and password, and Abracadabra, your account and all your Facebook friends can be restored at any time. Whenever you come to your senses and decide to return. This is too much, my friends.
Facebook. You can check out anytime. But you can never leave.
1 comments:
This makes me very glad that I've never gone near Facebook, and don't intend to.