Monday, March 25, 2013

Facebook, I love you. Facebook, I hate you. And I want some cookies.

Again, I'm going through my semi-annual love / hate relationship with Facebook. First-world problems. I have so many other things I can do. Should do.
Like, for instance--blogging. Because that is most certainly more worthy of my time, right? Yes.
But first, I must get over this weird thought-process that if I don't get every single blog post perfect, grammatically and thought-wise, it's not worth posting. I have some ideas I'd like to blog about, but I seem stuck in some sort of perfection-limbo, believing that if an entry isn't flawless in every way, it's not worth posting.
Well, I'm not Mary Poppins. I'm not practically perfect in every way, except perhaps to my kids when they were younger and my dog, who is no longer with us.
So since my kids are older and my dog is in Heaven, it's time to get on with some blog posts that may or may not make the mark, punctually, grammatically or any other "ly". They may even be boring to you. Some entries I read are boring to me. It didn't stop the blogger from blogging the next day.
Please comment if you are reading this. Don't comment on Facebook and feed my habit. Comment on this blog and lure me away from the little red icon telling me how many "likes" I have, or who else has posted something I can absolutely live without knowing. 
(Sorry--of course I don't mean you! I'm terribly interested in what you ate for lunch, or your political viewpoint, or what you feel needs it's awareness 'raised', or where you are "checking in"...and I'm especially interested in those adorable foot photographs that everyone seems so fond of posting these days. And of course, I love hearing about the FB games you're playing! Really! Terribly interested!)
I just don't have 36 hours in a day, and so have to choose.
And I'm choosing to know you all just a little bit ... less. And more. More on that in a bit.
Do you feel this way about any social media? I notice that when I'm on it, I know weird, random factoids about people, such as where they are eating dinner, what room they just redecorated, how they feel about gun-control and abortion, and what their kids said. But I am not eating with them, or being invited to see the newly-decorated room, marching in a protest, or spending time with them or their cute-talking children. So I see them at church, or around town, and the convo is this awkward sort of, "Heeeeey! So how've ya been? Yeah? Great! Saw you had dinner at The China Bucket last week! Yeah...and your feet look GREAT!" kind of chat.
And I'm done.
Frankly, I'd rather know fewer factoids about you and have an actual cup of coffee with you. I have a few friends with whom I actually do this. And you know what? I know stuff about them. Not where they ate dinner last night, but real-life stuff. Like the troubles and struggles they're going through. Their plans for vacation this year. How their husbands are doing. What they think about the cookies I just served them, and the music at church last week, and the book we both happen to have read. The stuff I know about my coffee-drinking, cookie-eating friends in real life is stuff that will not be posted on Facebook. Because there's no interesting way to post this status: "I think it was well-written, but the first third was slow and I almost put it down. His foot is healing nicely, much faster than the doctors said. I really like them, they're not too sweet. We're trying to decide between Monterey and Disneyland...what do you think? Wasn't that song FABULOUS! I was moved to tears! My 3-year old still can't sleep through the night..."
No, this is the stuff that life is made of, the stuff that is discussed between actual people, not put into little "statuses" or "tweets". 
And I want to hear it from you, not read it on a screen. You're worth my time, and frankly, I'm worth yours. It's time well-spent, this discussing of life's generalities. Time spent on social media rings of time that could have been better spent, sort of like choosing french fries over broccoli. While I loves me some fries, I'm truly needing some broccoli, know what I mean? 
Many things "old-school" are viewed as new and therefore trendy by some. I'm sure there will be a new name given to sitting with someone enjoying a cuppa with some cookies, as though a 20-year old just invented this "new" way of communicating. I've always called it fun. Or relaxing. Or a nice break from the day. But if you're so busy posting and tweeting about random factoids of your life, you won't have enough time in the day to actually visit and have a hot, tasty beverage with some sort of baked goods and talk about absolutely nothing and everything.
No amount of TweetBooking can even come close to that. Because we are worth the time. And because my coffee is really, really good.
"As a dog returns to it's vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness." Proverbs 26:11 (NLT), with thanks to the wise and humorous Stephen Norton for this reminder.


6 comments:

Kristine said...

I'm here!

I've blogged for over 6 years. It's our memory book of our life, what we've done, where we've been at various times, silly school stories, pics of my kids doing all sorts of things they'd otherwise completely forget. I lagged off quite a bit earlier this year, but I think I'm back on track--or at least I'm getting there.

I like FB for certain things, but it is mostly superficial, hi, how are you, nice that you are showing screaming cat faces with funny jokes attached, or to see your political slants.

But blogging. It's my real life, my real family. My kids have always read back to see what we were doing at any given time--actually, I have no idea why they look back at old posts, but they have for years and continue to do so.

Um. Nothing else to add here. :)

The Classical Circus said...

Oh, how I wish I could have coffee with you (and your daughter!).

--Courtney

Lisa said...

Kristine, is your blog public? If so, address, please!

Lisa said...

And Courtney--me, too...
Anytime you're in northern or central CA, my dear, you have coffee and cookies waiting for you.

Robin Thompson said...

Mmmmm...cookies and coffee!!!! =)

She thinks that? said...

Thank you for the soup when we were in town. It warmed me up! I'm glad we stayed longer, so we could go to your house and enjoy the company. =) ~Susan N