A Final Goodbye

I said my final goodbyes today.....to Facebook!

I remember being 17 years old, sitting at the computer, waiting for what seemed like eternity for our dial-up connection to bring up my AOL account and tell me, "You've Got Mail!" My cell phone was a brick of a thing that I kept turned off in my glove box in case of emergencies. There was no texting. We had pagers and we would send our boyfriends an "I love you" message spelled somehow with numbers. "Google" was not a household name.

That was only 13 years ago. The world of technology has changed dramatically in that time and with that change came social networking websites, like MySpace and Facebook. I really have enjoyed both of these websites. When I got married and had children, it was a great way to share my pictures and stories with my friends and make some new friends as well.

But are these people really my "friends?" I recently examined my Facebook friend list and deleted some people that I did not even know. But then when I looked at what was left of my "friends" there were only a handful of people I actually considered friends in the "real world." Frightening!

When I would read my "friends'" status updates on Facebook, it started to feel nosey. Is it really my business? And as I looked with a more critical eye, so much of what I read was negative in one way or another. Lots of people were complaining. Others were trying to paint a perfect fairytale picture of their life for others to see.

I am not saying that's how everyone behaves on Facebook. I had some friends that were a joy to interact with. We would tag each others kids in our pictures and respond in prayer requests when needed. I will definitely miss keeping in touch with some of my old high school friends and my family members that do not live nearby.

But ultimately, I felt like it was the best decision for me to just deactivate my Facebook account. The time I spent on Facebook was time I needed to be spending with my family anyway.

I decided to continue to blog. I never thought I would get into blogging. To be honest, I always thought it was a little dorky! But I love to write. It's soothing for me to get my thoughts out on paper (or screen!) and I am incredibly open, so this just seems a natural fit for me. I can post pictures and share stories here, just as I did on Facebook, but it's only for people who want to see. So, if you stopped by, thanks and I hope you come back and visit again soon!