Considering kicking Facebook to the curb....

I have been toying around with going back to blogging. I am discontented with Facebook, which is where I mostly post my observations, witty and sometimes snarky posts.  People are less apt to read entirely, think, and discuss.

 My friends are better than most, if not all - sorry, not sorry. They are. They disagree politically, theologically, just about every way and still maintain dignity and respect for each other. I say it almost daily to myself.... My FB friends are the best.

They also read. A week doesn't go by that I don't bookmark one of my friends asking for reading recommendations and I save the post for my own future reference. A friend from college made a FB group where we share what we are reading. I know only the creator, but I like his friends as well.  Readers.  Thinkers.

I will get FB messages of books - one recently that had to share what her daughter was reading in college. I love this friend altho we don't see each other often, and when we do, we happen to run into each other in a library and talk for at least an hour.

These are my friends.  I am thankful for them.

And it is due to this most recent book recommendation, The Shallows, that seems to kick me over the edge to get back to blogging. Well, that and another pesky friend who wants me to blog or run for office, and so blogging wins, hands down.

I would be lying if I didn't say I enjoy a good debate. I love being challenged in what I think. I want to dissect a topic, see if it makes sense, put it back together. I want to understand something fully, entirely.

I am also a high introvert and so being home behind a screen is optimal. Or meeting 1 or 2 people for coffee. Groups are hard. Church is hard. Meetings are hard. I like seeing words because I can decide if that is exactly what I mean. If the word choice fits, is accurate. Conveys all I want to share.

So, I am thinking of kicking FB to the curb.  Not entirely.  It is a good format for certain things.  But it has become too much in my life.  It has become a crutch to pseudo-think.  It has reduced my capability to dwell, ponder, reflect.  To still.   And with that, I cannot abide.

I wonder if my friends have felt the same.   The change in their abilities.   The antsiness when you sit and hold a "real" book.   The mind wander.   The impulse to just scroll and not contemplate if the contemplation is too difficult.

What are your thoughts?   I cant be the only one...



The book recommended to me was The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr.

*  Please note there was an internal discussion as to the capitalization of Our in the title and I am mildly proud of my Texas education that made me underline the entire thing.  Do not ever doubt the educational method of "Drill and Kill".