Originally published Tuesday, 15 July 2014.
Last Monday I shared two reasons I am glad of the decision to quit Facebook. Today I will roll out the last three reasons why I think this was a good decision for me.
1. Judgmental reactions are avoided.
Many times a person would post a picture on Facebook and I would immediately send out my judgmental antennae labeling exhibit A as too revealing, infomercial material, or fake to the hilt. Judgmentalism is a subtle sin that Christians can overlook easily in light of the more offensive, in your face sins like swearing or underage drinking or the like. However, judgmental and pious attitudes are equally sinful as the aforementioned. Cutting out Facebook equated cutting down on judgmental attitudes that held everyone around me to my own and often unobtainable standards.
2. Freedom to live without constant need for affirmation.
Often times, I would post a picture, statement, article, or blog post and have no response from friends. When this happened I would worry that I had said or done something wrong, that people were tired of listening to my voice, or that I wasn't accepted or liked. Without putting myself out there for the friend world to respond to I feel freedom to be myself and invest my voice into the people within my sphere of influence in face to face relationships and within this community at This Temporary Home. You show up to read my writing without any sense of compulsion other than because you want to. Thank you is not enough, but all that I have to offer. So...thank you!
3. Regaining a measure of privacy.
It is my experience in our world of social media and the blogosphere that people can know very much about you without ever talking with you. I am really not sure how comfortable I am with that. On the one hand it is great to share in what God is teaching me or what adorable thing my children are doing at their current age, but on the other hand, I loose sight of who in fact is reading that information when I share it with over one-thousand friends. In ditching Facebook, I have regained a sense of my children's privacy and my own. Not everyone needs to know what I am doing or thinking or struggling with on a daily, or update-by-update basis.
Regaining private moments and marking them as private makes them more special and gives me stories to tell and share as I recall them. I have no idea how putting our kids out there for so many people to see will affect them in the long run. I want to guard these precious children I have been entrusted with and for me that started with Facebook and has lead to cutting down significantly even with pictures I post on This Temporary Home.
What about you? Have you considered dropping one form of social media? Have you already done so? What are some of the benefits or lessons that you have learned?
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