30 Days Without Facebook: Day 10

   One-third of the way in, and, well, I kinda' cheated. Yesterday I logged on briefly to offer kefir grains to any takers because I'm over-run with them, and today I logged on to get information on a family reunion. Proof that Facebook is useful! I kid. I never doubted its usefulness, just its necessity in my life at this time. In the brief amount of time away I noticed a few things when I logged on today:

1. I know a lot less about my older sister's garden. Gotta' love a feed filled with green, organic goodness!
2. A close friend of six years has cut me out of her life because I said here that I felt disrespected when I was sworn at. I force no one to be friends with me. I have grieved and moved on, but I will miss that friendship.
3. I have to really dig through the senseless shares, SPAMS, and game invites to get to anything of merit from my friends. I have nothing against games, contests, etc, it just takes A LOT of time to scroll through them to see how my friends are actually doing! 

   In the brief amount of time away I noticed a few things about my home:

My Tiny Girl  modeling the dress I knit her,
with her buddy, Baby Toothless

1. My house is cleaner. Mostly this is my Type-A personality at work. I can't relax and just sit when I see mess around me. With Facebook I could distract myself. 
2. My husband was states away on a work trip most of this past week and I was very, very lonely. We don't broadcast when my husband will not be coming home at night, so while I did get calls and texts daily from the people who DID know like my mom, sisters, and three close friends, the nights were much more quiet and lonely- I even shed quite a few tears- missing my husband and without the distraction of Facebook where I could connect with people without leaving my home at all hours.
3. I knit more. Is it even possible?! Yes, it is. LOL Without the mindless scrolling through of Facebook in my downtime, my hands were free for more knitting so I was able to knit a size 4/5 long-sleeved dress for my youngest girl  and start a size 2T/3T winter romper for my youngest boy.

   There's a lot of good in Facebook. I can get love and support when I need it. I can give love and support when friends need it. I can stay in touch with friends and family. I can enjoy looking at the gardens and greenery our HOA rules forbids me to have outside my windows. I can give away my abundantly-growing kefir grains. :-P 

   There's also a lot of not-so-good in Facebook. It can distract us from the things and people needing attention in our lives. It can allow us to cyber-stalk friends to check on their well-being instead of reaching out with a personal connection like a text, a call, or a note. It can facilitate the destruction of relationships over simple misunderstandings because it's easier to run away and block people out rather than talk about and deal with an issue head-on in order to move past it, understand one another, and grow from the situation. 

   So I'm left wondering what to do. Is the answer to delete Facebook altogether and just do the old-fashioned phone calls, letters, and cards thing, and call the people who don't care to keep up that way a casualty of true connection? Is the answer to just weed out the people I want to stay personally connected with rather than keeping many(almost 500) people on my "friends" list out of courtesy so they don't think I'm somehow mad at them? Maybe the next 20 days will show me the answer. In the mean time I will be cleaning, knitting, reading to my children, snuggling with my husband, taking the kids to a professional soccer game together, teaching VBS, and getting ready for the new school year(starts August 4th! WOO!), hoping the direction comes to me.