Narcissist Pages – oops, I mean Facebook

I’m on a Facebook break.  It must be a Spring thing with me because I just realized I did the same thing last May.  Hmmm…maybe it’s because I don’t want one more thing to distract me from being outside as life bursts forth from winter dregs. Of course, I could be on Facebook while outside. But then I wouldn’t be LOOKING at the spectacular, colorful evolutions of life cycling around me.

Whatever the reason, I did it. And, like last year, it’s refreshing. For many reasons, it's often wise to take breaks from bits of our busy lives.

Sometime in the night I woke up thinking about my hiatus. I know, that’s a strange thing to ponder while sleeping. Yep. It is.

It suddenly occurred to me what 90% of Facebook is. Or maybe more than 90%. It's not a warm fuzzy feeling. Don’t worry. No Facebook bashing here. I’m just sharing a few observations.

Now, believe me, I like to know what’s going in the lives of my real and virtual friends (those I do not see in person or talk to or even text). It makes me feel like I’m a part of their lives. And for the first time in my adult life, since the inception of Facebook I actually interact in the lives of my cousins who live scattered around the country. And that is very good.

But when I look at the whole social media picture on that platform, it’s what is shared that’s bizarre.  

There are some who share their reason for supporting various causes. Although occasionally they go a bit overboard with those posts which causes their ‘friends’ to feel they’re being assaulted to join, to change, to support. If we’re not pushing causes, then we share what we do. We share what we eat. We share where we go. We share our triumphs. We share who we’re with. We share how busy we are. We share our opinions of the weather. And the baseball or football game on television.

It’s a perfect ‘all about me’ platform. Even when posts are about causes. They are either ‘my’ causes to support or yours to bash.

The sad thing is, this all about me mentality is not necessarily about the ‘real me’.  We paint pictures of our lives that we want others to envision. Which means, we rarely share depth and substance. Do we know the real people we interact with day in and day out on social media?

Then again, if we do share depth and substance, why? Exactly. To continue the all about me look.

One more thought on the shallowness of electronic relationships. How many comments are made on friends’ posts? Take a good look. It’s not much. And what does that reveal?

So, I’m on a Facebook hiatus, yes. But I will return. Why? Because I want to be a part, even electronically, of people in my life whom I consider to be friends. And I want to share some idea of my life. Naturally.

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