Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 3 Comments

Resistance is futile, you must assimilate…

So my efforts at divorcing Facebook are proving to be more difficult than I originally anticipated. As much as I might despise certain aspects of The Borg, one thing you cannot argue: if you are involved in any kind of business or group effort, FB can’t be beat for getting the news out to large numbers of people quickly.

I fought with myself (as is often the case with addicts trying to kick a habit), and I will own it — I confess I peeked at the notifications on my account a few times since my last post. Not nearly as often as I usually do, but I did peek.

Then I saw a friend request from one of the main players at Baystar Group (the publishers of Image magazine, where I recently had an article published).  I received a very nice letter from the president of the Alvin Historical Society regarding my article on the museum, and she also sent a copy to the editor of Image.  My new FB friend at the publisher scanned the letter and posted it to FB. I’d be fibbing if I said that wasn’t a bit of an ego boost.

I learned that FB is one of the primary ways that the group communicates regarding the magazine, as well as promoting the magazine, the articles, the writers, photographers, etc. This set me thinking about the FB group that our church utilizes to spread the word regarding prayer requests, and the FB page that I use to post photos of window treatment projects I’ve completed.

* * * H E A V Y     S I G H * * *

So I spent a good part of this morning, between sneezes (because, of course, I’m coming down with an allergy-inspired spring cold) trying to fine-tune FB to work for me, rather than me work for it. I unfollowed dozens and dozens of people and pages, while still remaining FB friends. The way I hope this works is that when I share a blog post, or something pertinent to my freelance writing, my window treatment business, or my church family, the right people will see it. And I hope that I will not be inundated with videos of fluffy puppies. political diatribes, and endless recipes.

As always, if you have something to say, please say it down there ▼▼▼▼▼ in the comments box, rather than responding on FB. I will be eternally grateful. 💗

 

Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 9 Comments

My Name is Laura, and I’m a FB Addict

I’ve toyed with the idea, off and on, for years about severing ties to Facebook. Thoughts race through my mind regarding this idea, with increasing stress, indicating there is a problem. Thoughts, in no specific order:

  • “How will I stay in touch with people?” The same way I stayed in touch with people before. I’ll email. I’ll text. I’ll call. I’ll blog. And hopefully, if they care about me as a friend, as family, they’ll do the same.
  • “How will I know what’s going on?” See above.
  • “It’s fun!” Really? This morning, while reading a loved one’s comments regarding the current election cycle, I became stressed, angry, and frustrated as to how someone I truly consider brilliant could reach the conclusions reflected in a FB post. Right now, I’ve a pounding headache because I chose to spend time unwisely – I knew this person was leaning in that direction, but because the topic had been avoided in conversation, I was able to put it out of mind. FB forced it into my periphery where I could not ignore it. There’s a reason our votes are supposed to be secret – so we can vote as we believe we should, without judgment or judging others.

I’m tired of the effect FB has on my attitude, on my day, on my time management, and most importantly my feelings towards others (I totally get it now, Marcelyn). I’m tired of wasting hours of my life scrolling through a newsfeed to see if something interesting has happened. I’ve decided I would rather be doing interesting things than watching other people do them.

I’m tired of wasting time I could be using to do productive things like WRITE… Years ago, I started blogging at Xanga (does anyone even remember that site any longer). I blogged faithfully, at least three or four times a week, and through that site I made several good friends. (Hat tips to Marcelyn, Tim, and Jennifer…)

After several years of blogging, I remember hearing that FB was going to be opened up to the general public (rather than just university students) and I thought I would check it out. It was fun, with silly games (does anyone remember collecting “Flair” or “Water Globes?”) It was easy to communicate in sound bites, rather than lengthy posts, and much time was spent re-doing FB pages every time Mark Zuckerberg’s minions decided to change FB layouts. The more time I spent on FB, the less time I spent on blogging/writing.

So I’m stepping back. I’m done with it. I’ll be blogging here from now on. I’ll share my blog posts for a while — I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to link to them on FB, because I really want to make the separation complete. If you are at all interested in reading what I write here, please subscribe to my blog so you’ll get it in your email box. Because at some point, I’m not going to share them with FB any longer.

And for the love of pete, please comment here – NOT FB. I’m not going back over there, so I’m not going to see your comments if you make them on FB. FB is like crack for me. If I log on, I lose minutes or hours of time that could be used better elsewhere. So I won’t be logging on to see anything. 

I guess this is one good way to find out who really loves and appreciates me. I hope you’ll come along for the ride here.