Dear Facebook,
I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to quit you. For good, this time.
It’s not you, it’s me.
This is precipitated by that consistently nauseated feeling I get when I think of you and all those useless, insipid posts that people put up. When I think yet again that I need to pare down my friends list to people I actually consider friends and/or people that will not repeatedly invite me to join them to play your stupid games. I can’t figure out if they keep inviting me because they assume I made a mistake when I hit the decline button, or if the grand plan is to wear me down.
I really detest posts like “8 Ways To Know if You Have a Real Man” or “Repost if you Love The Lord/Your Grandchildren/Your Dogs”. If you need Facebook to tell you whether or not you’re in a relationship with a man or an overgrown child, then you have more problems than eight bullet points can address. Those repost request are always for the most absurd shit. Why do I need to declare my feelings for the rest of Facebook? The religious ones seem to consistently have some shaming element to them, often with a veiled threat. You don’t think so? I actually saw one where it reminded people that they don’t want the Lord to be ashamed of them on judgement day…so they shouldn’t deny him on Facebook. Really? What a crock of holy shit. Besides, Jesus is on Twitter. He won’t see the post.
I don’t have the urge to post personal things anymore. I don’t want people to know where I spent Christmas or how drunk I was for New Years - all anyone needs to know is that it wasn’t as drunk I as would've liked. You’re right, I did post the photos from our family trip to New York. That was just a few months ago in October. My heart wasn’t really in it. I’d finally taken the opportunity to use the photo editing software on my computer and I loved the results. That’s really what I wanted to share - my newfound photo editing skills, not much else.
The obvious answer to all of the issues I have is to ignore them, right? Just get on, see what I like and then get off. I have been doing that for the last year, but still being on Facebook feels like I’m contributing to the problem - like those people who slow down to look at a wreck on the freeway and only cause traffic.
I do like seeing photos of the babies in my family - especially since I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, but maybe our breakup will be the push I need to keep in touch with them in the real world, where I can snuggle and play with them.
I know my one small withdrawal from your world won’t really make one damn bit of difference. You have millions upon millions of users and won’t shed a single tear over my exit. But we’ve had a long relationship and some good times. It seemed wrong to simply disappear without a word.
Maybe when the world gets a little less crazy - or I start making ‘friends’ with less crazy people, I’ll come back.
Take care,
Shayla
