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| Photo by me, May 2013. |
The birds are tweeting, the sun is just turning the sky from black to
blue, I've got my jazz going, a truck rumbles past -
it is six in the morning. I've been up long enough to be sipping my
second cup of coffee and consume my ritual bowl of Greek yogurt and
freshly chopped apples. I was reading reviews of a biography of Chet
Baker, I plan on borrowing it from the library and making it the first
book I read on my summer break from Facebook. The Amazon reviews are
like those on Yelp; a testament to the fact that everyone has an opinion,
but only a few are worth considering.
Yesterday I reached a decision on something I'd been considering from
some time and that was to take a much needed break from Facebook. I'd
already pulled back in what I shared there, often posting something and
deleting it a few minutes later. I'd gotten to the point of when I
wanted to post a status update or a photo asking myself whether it was
really necessary to share.
I've never been one to post the daily trivia like I have a headache or I'm bored or the juvenile passive aggressive sympathy posts. I really detest those posts of people fishing for sympathy. Anyway, I'm going to try to live a month without logging in and then try to go the entire Summer without ever checking that narcissistic place. I expect that I'll be okay with it even if I do feel slightly disconnected from my circle but I'd rather see them in person than on Facebook. I hope to regain time that I used to waste waiting for the Facebook phone app to open on my phone and then check in to a place, think of a somewhat amusing line, or get whatever photo I wanted to post uploaded with just the right filter effect. All of that effort adds up and it takes away from the moment that I wanted to experience and enjoy and.
I can't remember how many times I would be walking down the
street with someone and tell them to wait while I composed the right
angle on my iPhone for a photo or how I would sit down in a restaurant
and pull out my phone to check in. It's silly and in some ways I think
Facebook is becoming a form of performance art with each of us trying to
out do each other in how fabulous or interesting we think our lives are,
when in reality most are just ordinary.
So.... this Summer I get to try and remember what life was like before I
was inundated with the advent of social networking. I hope to get to
spend more focused and truly genuine time with friends, embrace the
slower and more natural rhythms of life and occasionally get to enjoy
the quiet. I'm looking forward to reading books, continuing on with my
photography projects, spending time at the lake house and not needing to
share it right away on Facebook, taking trips, walking city streets,
hiking in nature, sipping my coffee, thinking about what I want to learn
to cook, having a few beers at my hangouts - doing everything that I
normally do and even add more to it. The difference being
that I will be totally in the moment and not staring at my phone so
that I can share it right then, right now like a junkie needing his fix.
I plan to write more and I will post here on my blog, but it will come
at more natural times and without the junkie mentality of immediacy.
Sounds good right? With luck and a little determination I can do this and I'll be forever grateful.
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