Hey friends. So this ones a bit of a swirl-cone of dark and light. Some of you already know that Ive been struggling, with less success than Id like, to manage a genuinely crippling Facebook addiction. Ive always felt that quitting entirely was an extreme and unnecessary measure, fraught with damaging isolation, and so my efforts have always been of the compromise and minimize school. There have been momentary victories, and growth has come from those attempts, but I feel that over-all, the trajectory has been steadily curving away from where Id like to see it go. This past weekend has been spent at a remote music festival, with no digital connection, and the quiet meadow given to me by that absence has convinced me of the strong need, viability, and absolute desirability of a life lived with less Facebook and more actual faces. We have done and said some amazing things here in this space, and Id never devalue those; for all its foibles, Facebook can be, and has been, a place for a certain kind of wider-ranging and perhaps more open discussion on difficult topics, and a window into minds that one might have never seen so deeply into otherwise. That said, my own interaction with it has been more damaging than can be amended by almost any amount of that, and to seek balance, it seems I must first seek my opposite extreme. Im leaving. (dramatic music, unexpected frontal close-up with intense eye-contact) After Ive moved out of this house, Im de-activating my Facebook account, and until then, Ill be experimenting with radically limited presence; perhaps half an hour a day will do as a cooling period, but time will show me that. Please message me your emails and cell numbers, if youd like me to have them; my new, preferred email is keithjklassen@gmail, although that other one with the goofy name is still active. My cell number is 1-204-930-8908, and I like to text; if you call, itll likely go to voicemail, and thats not me trying to avoid you, I just dont like phonecalls unless theyre absolutely necessary. I know that this will make communicating with some of you much more of a challenge. Im looking forward to meeting that challenge with those who are willing to return the favour, and to the simplicity that I expect will be given to me by the many who arent. It is a gift if you are willing to give me your continued friendship, and it is another kind of gift if you are not. After 3 months of no FB, Ill re-examine my resolution, and decide whether or not to return. It is a valuable tool in many ways, and if I can find a healthy relationship with it, Id like that. Thanks for taking the time to read this little novel, and for being here with me in the first place. I know there are going to be some incredible comments on here about how Facebook is the devil, Facebook is the next iteration of humanity, Facebook is the only place to find any good smoothie recipes, etc. Youre all completely right in your own ways, and I will personally clap a good long time for each comment that I read, no matter how badly spelled or how perfectly parsed in poetic verse.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:56:40 +0000
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