Thursday, May 9, 2013

Clicking " Not Attending"

I called in sick to Facebook today, I'm not going in. 

After reading several posts about Facebook-related narcissism disorders, I really started to wonder if I was staring a little too closely into my own navel.  (See David Wygant's article for Huffington post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wygant/are-you-a-facebook-or-twi_b_3008931.html )
The signs are all there: the excited feeling I get when I see the indicator light on my phone, the inability to accept boredom for a single minute... I think I may be an addict.  Instead of doing housework, I'm on my laptop clicking ' Like' on inspirational quotes or captioning my friend's posted photos, as if my life depended on it.  Chat function means at any time of day I can bore someone with my random thoughts or gossip, neither of which I really want to be known for.  Facebook is making me into a person seeking attention for all the wrong reasons.  If I stand back and take a good look at my posts, I notice a distinct trend toward seeking approval for two things: what I'm wearing and how I'm acting. 
Facebook, you're steering me wrong, you're like a bad friend who's not encouraging me to be my best.  I think it's a good time for us to maybe put some space in the relationship.  Just because I put together a cute outfit today doesn't mean that I simply must show everyone.  At work I don't get an evaluation every day; it's the long-term progress reports that count.  If I walked into the boss' office and asked for daily evaluations, I'd never get any work done; this is my a-ha moment.
Facebook is now my Svengali, hypnotizing me into making me feel I'm something better than I am. It's fun, it's soothing, but real efforts will ultimately yield more rewards. My own real life deserves my attention, so Facebook, consider me ' Not Attending' as often!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So many great points, love this post!

Anonymous said...

So many great points, love this post!