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viewsYou DON'T Have Time for Facebook?
By ReneeCK, Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 2 commentsBack in the dark ages of technology, I had a cell phone. When it came time to renew it, I decided against it because I wanted to be out and alone when I was out, not be able to have every Tom, Dick, and Harry with my number able to call me. “What Tom? Dinner toni…excuse me! Can you tell me where the dry mustard is? No, not you Tom.” Yeah. No.
Before I left the 9-5 world, I worked for an internet service provider. Email became my life and I could not get enough of it. My phone messages waited while I was at work and I dealt with them when I got home. Then I had my son and the phone ringing started to piss me off. In case you haven’t ever been around a newborn, let me give you the lowdown: the day of the parent of a newborn is basically feed, change, bathe, sleep, repeat. If I was feeding, I couldn’t get to the phone. (It’s pretty difficult to get up with a person attached to your breast.) If I was changing, well, I could have gotten to the phone, but I figure we’ll keep the peeing on walls to an emergency basis. Bathing, well, phone in water, not a good combo. And sleep, sleep is precious. Don’t interrupt sleep.
That left my work preference, email, as my preferred method of communication. Quiet. Informative. And ready for me when I had time.
Since then I’ve had to go back to having a cell phone, but even with it, I’m much more inclined to text (or email) with it than I am to call someone. A phone call is, in my opinion, the ultimate in selfish behavior. I’m ringing!! Pick me up or I’ll keep ringing! Pay me attention! Drop what you’re doing! I need to be attended to now! There are few instances where I need to give immediate attention to anything, but for the few that I do, I need my phone.
But with my phone, I’m selective about who gets my number leaving me out of a lot of loops. With the introduction of MySpace, and later Facebook to my life, a whole new world opened up.
I have stepped away from MySpace and Facebook has become my go-to, but it is, to me, what email was when I was a new mom. My life waits at my little online cocktail party while I workout, run to the school, buy groceries, or whatever else fills my day. When I am ready and have time, there are my friends filling me in on their day and I can tell them how mine went.
Now, there are people I know who are not on Facebook and claim they don’t have time for it. I beg you, how can you not have time for Facebook? Instead of having to spend time checking in with whoever it is you choose to check in with (you can categorize people out- work friends, high school friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. and decide who you want to get info on and who you want to share your info with!) you can sit down and do it in the amount of time you allot for it. And there’s no awkward walking away when your child needs you in the bath tub or your favorite show is on, you simply log off and let the online party continue while you get back to life as planned. When you leave, you know that your friends are organizing meals for a friend who’s child is sick, that you’re supposed to pick up the tomato juice for dinner, or any other 411 that comes from living your life.
I will admit, there are those nasty applications which can be time drains. I had a mafia and I had a farm (E-I-E-I-O) which I built up. But, eventually I found that when I would put out a hit, buy a house, or reach achievements, there would be more to do. It’s such a metaphor for life. I got tired of it and stopped that nonsense. (There is a group called I Will Kill Your Livestock if You Send Me Another Farm Gift that I’m looking into now.) I do play Bejeweled on a team with my friends and can be invited to a game of Lexulous (which is like Scrabble but without the copyright issues) but in general I’m spending my time catching up with old friends and sharing my stories with them.
If you want to be a part of my online world, I’ve even started a page for my writing and other things of interest to me. I’d love to have you join the fun. I promise that the time wasting is all for the good. (I put up a link to virtual bubble wrap on a Friday.) Don’t tell me you don’t have time!
Enjoy!
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2 Comments
Renee, I really enjoyed
Renee,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I went from absolutely HATING FB to absolutely LOVING it within a month's time. At first I hated it because the only people I had as friends talked only about the humdrum events of their day...I'm taking a nap now, I'm going to work now, I'm cooking dinner now, I'm taking a poop now, I'm taking a shower now...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
Then, when I actually started finding people I really wanted to be friends with, people who's lives I had interest in, it became such a valuable resource. Wow! People I loved and missed that I only talked to on the phone a few times a year before and had lost genuine touch with because I missed the small details were suddenly very present. It is such a valuable way to stay in touch with the people in our lives that we normally would lose touch with (most of my friends from college and boarding school live in different states).
Anyway, I am still very new to the once dreaded and feared technology. I am a slow learner when it comes to this. I was surprised to read that you can filter out information coming in and information going out. How did I miss this? I will need to learn how to do this:-) I will also be checking the site you listed. Thanks!
the phone
Hi Renee,
As a mother of four, I understand how the ringing telephone can turn you into a tower sniper. I, too, am lagging behind a bit in the techno-transformation area. Only a few people have my cell number because I hate being interrupted while I'm out unless there's a good reason. Things like, "Just wanted to let you know Tom Cruise is going to be jumping on Oprah's couch again today," do not qualify.
I became another Farmtown casualty on Facebook. After about a month, I had to detox from it. I knew when I couldn't remember the kids' names and everyone looked thinner, it was time to quit. In my opinion, new technology is just like anything else. When used in moderation, the new gadgets and goodies can be fun as well as useful.
Nice post, I enjoyed reading it.
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