Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Goodbye Facebook (for now)


I came, I went, I saw, I status-updated with the best of them, and now I'm calling it quits.

For now, anyway.

On the one hand, I love Facebook.

On the other, I really don't.

It's nice to see old friends, for sure. It's nice to comment on friends' and family photos, absolutely. I've spoken more with my cousins on Facebook than I ever would have before.

But WTF is up with people from high school that I barely even remember 'friending' me and then not even sending any kind of 'hello' message? Somebody that I sort of remember who was more a friend of friends in JUNIOR HIGH friend requested me the other day.

HELLO!!! We haven't spoken in 15 years and NOW you want to be my 'friend?'

Except she didn't even say 'hi' or put a message with her request.

And when I press 'ignore' for friend requests from people that I barely remember, a month later they're requesting me AGAIN because i probably showed up on the "People You May Know" tool and they thought "oh, huh...there's Sarah, I should totally friend request her!" because they've already forgotten that they friend requested me a month ago.

It's like people are out there collecting pogs, or something. (remember pogs?)

It was a really hard decision because I also really enjoy seeing photos people post of this and that, and there are a few people from high school that I've really enjoyed re-interacting with, not to mention simply the enjoyment of seeing what folks are up to.

But then again, how much are we REALLY interacting? I comment on photos. They comment on mine. We smile and think that's so nice. But have we really reconnected our friendship? Have we actually gone out and taken photos together that we'll later share on Facebook?

Erm, no, we haven't.

Don't get me wrong, I think Facebook is tons of fun. But I just don't think I have the time right now to really spend much time getting everything out of it I would want to.

I feel like I have more work to do on the friendships I have outside of the online world, and between email and blogging, I do enough on the internet. I need to focus more on the relationships in my life and put more effort into maintaining them - both new and old.

I may go back to Facebook, but until then, I'll be holding down the blog front and of course, I'm always available on email. And in the real world I'll be attempting to get people together for rides, hikes, runs, drinks, laughs, and good stuff.

(oh and p.s. I am totally going to miss Wordscraper (the Scrabble game)!!!)

10 comments:

Maggs said...

haha. I was so going to blog about the good and bad of facebook today. I've been on it for 2 years, but never really did anything until 2 weeks ago. Just today i connected with some friends from highschool (they've all stayed in touch, where I dropped off the radar). It was a serious blast from the past! I'm allowing myself to play around in the off season, then I'll cut back. But yeah, I have to laugh at all the requests I've gotten from people I didn't know at all.

Anonymous said...

I TOTALLY REMEMBER POGS!!! I was great at them and had a HUGE collection with tons of awesomely cool slammers and rare finds. Man I miss pogs. The kids today don't know what they are missing!!

yea let's get together soon! there might be a BBQ going on here (sausalito) saturday afternoon.

Vanessa said...

I'll be sad not to read your status updates anymore! At least facebook was good for something and got us in touch again. I don't think we'll be meeting up for lunch anytime soon but at least we've got blogs and emails!!

BreeWee said...

Bring on the pogs! And the garbage pail kids! Yahooooo.

I love the blogs better too, so much more fun. Face Book reminds me of 8th grade year books, you sign the year book, hope cool kids ask you to sign theres, then you look at all class photos. Except when my sisters write, then I love face book... funny how it is more fun to write them than call on the phone!

The first week I was addicted, this week not so much... I think you might motivate me to take a break from it too...

Have fun taking a break (if you can... ha ha ha)

Eileen Swanson said...

HA! OMG, Bree totally made me remember Garbage Pail Kids. Don;t remember pogs though. Ok, what does your T-giving look like? Can you come out here for the fun, crazy t-giving day ride? There are usually about 300 people or more on it. Another choice would be the 5K on Dec 6th.

XO,
E

Anonymous said...

Way to draw the line Sarah! So easy to get sucked into these things and harder to assess where the time goes. Facebook's loss is our gain. Blogging rocks. Ok, real people are good too...sometimes. Ha!

Courtenay said...

whats a pog

i was obsessed with transformers and horses, but really i think pogs must have been "after my time"

rocketpants said...

I've been anti-facebook for no good reason other than *everyone* does it and i'm a stubborn against the grain person so will chose not to do something *solely* because its popular. (i'm a irrational like that and it only over random things, not everything) Every now and then people attempt to convert me over...maybe one day...but then I read things like your post and think...naw.

Tawny said...

Is this about me not always poking you back?

Look, Sar - I'm sorry about all that. Baby, come back, I've changed my ways...

Rainmaker said...

Yup, I feel like doing the same thing sometimes. Especially with work people. I just don't want to mix 'business with pleasure' sometimes. It's hard keeping things all seperated. Messy stuff.