Platforms. (Not necessarily the shoes.)

So I am taking a bit of a Facebook hiatus these days (with the exception of logging in today to shamelessly re-promote my blog again; but I'll be deactivating my page in the morning at some point). I initially did this because I was just downright PMSing and wanted to avoid all that annoyed the piss out of me. Then decided to put a little thought into what exactly it was that was annoying said piss out of me. For starters, it just so happened to be the week that "50 Shades of Gray" was released in theaters. Which brought on an abundance of repetitive "OMG I can't wait to go see 50 Shades tonight with all of man girrrrllllzzzz!!!!" posts.... Then followed by the oppositional "but 50 Shades promotes and exploits abusive relationships and we should all boycott it" posts... How I wanted to slap every last person posting all of these things just based on the massive clog in my newsfeed of dozens upon dozens of lust-driven, fantasy-obsessed, needing-or-desperately-hoping-to-get-laid women. Sure, I could have very easily just "hidden them from my newsfeed" or not logged into Facebook and let the hype die down after a few days, but I have a Facebook problem ("hi, I'm Amanda, and I'm addicted to Facebook!" *sheepish wave*) and if I did hide all of these posts, there goes a giant chunk of my newsfeed. And I won't remember to un-hide all of these people. So I scrolled on past, silently pleading with whomever is inherently in tune with my thoughts to make it staaaaaaahp.

But then... Forgive me if my sense of timing is somewhat skewed... The whole vaccination and measles debates were popping up left and right. Boom, in my face, the sides pitted against each other waging a war on who is right or wrong when it comes to public and private health matters. I once again scrolled past, silently muttering to myself the whole time about how "are these people freaking SERIOUS?!" and hoping something else would soon become trendy and get this nonsense out of my newsfeed for me.

And don't get me started on that cutesy Home Depot music video that was slightly viral for a time (for those out of the loop of things Depot-related-- HD has a contest among its employees similar to an American Idol/America's Got Talent-esque search for the next biggest Home Depot star... A group of employees made a music video with a medley of Disney songs quite creatively rearranged to be more HD-centrically themed... I thought it was pretty well produced and entertaining!) but in the days following the video being released, I had the link to the video posted repeatedly to my wall by well-meaning friends... I realize that any one of you reading this may have, in fact, been a poster of said video to my wall, and trust me when I say I am not angry and it isn't my intent to come off as a complete bitch... But when you've seen it a zillion and a half times  and then everyone and their mom keeps sharing it with you, especially during the week before "Shark Week in my Pants" week, you start to zone out and run out of ways to say "OMG awesome that's sooooo amazing!" (I'm sure this can be perceived and condescending and/or ungrateful, borderline uppity bitch status... So again I apologize, and blame it on the undesirable flood of hormones and whatnot).

And it had to look inside myself. People use Facebook as their platform of self expression for whatever they happen to be into or passionate about. And that's a good reason for one to use Facebook. And who am I to get all pissy about what Joe Schmoe posts on his page over and over again, regardless of how much it grates on me every time I scroll through my newsfeed and see the 182746462th link to some lame ass article I just saw Silly Sally, Leslie Loudmouth, and Repeat Pete post the same day...? So away from Facebook I go, because I just simply cannot take looking at another sweaty selfie someone took of themselves after they just got out of the gym (or a photo of the calories they burned on their Polar watch, or a screen shot of their Fitbit stats, or a pic of what you just ate). Have I been guilty of these things myself on my own Facebook page? Oh abso-freakin-lutely. See my hand raised up high owning up to being a participant in the things that now currently annoy me the most? Yup, I did it. And I'm sure I have annoyed a person (or many) with my feed as well.

So I walk away and leave the feeds to be clogged with more trending topics, viral videos, and chat of things that people really ought to discuss during a coffee outing with a friend, a dinner with their family, putting their phones down and actually looking each other in the face and having a real conversation, raw and not premeditated, not hiding behind a palm sized screen. I've been addicted to the Facebook propaganda for far too long and I hope to change that in myself and to be human and interact with other real, actual people. Blogging may be a tiny bit of a cop out as I can get my thoughts across to many in a one stop shop, but I'm no longer falling a sucker to a life sucking feed of digital gossip. I'll return to Facebook here and there, but it's been quite liberating and less stressful to have been away for even just as little as a week so far. 

So I dare you to have coffee with someone this week (or another beverage of choice if you aren't a coffee drinker). Have a real conversation with a human. More than that, step outside of your comfort zone and do so with someone you may only be just acquainted with. (Actually, there's a guy who embarked on a sort of mission similar to this... He has a blog http://coffeewithastranger.blogspot.com where he went for coffee with many, many strangers and blogged about the conversations he had with them... I find this crazy fascinating!) if only more people did things like this. I may challenge myself to do something along his line of thinking! Til next blog....