Year in review: Facebook

It feels like I spend much of my time on Facebook complaining about Facebook (And isn’t the first rule of Facebook that you don’t talk about Facebook? No?). As my wife can attest, I have a love-hate relationship with the platform. When it’s doing what I wanted to be on Facebook for in the first place I love it. I get to keep in more contact with a lot of people than I normally would. I enjoy Facebook most when my friends send interesting, amusing, beautiful, heart-warming things my way. I like to see their family fun, even if I don’t know their family. I’m happy to hear about the good things that happen to them. And I appreciate it when they share difficulties and ask for prayers/thoughts/good vibes, and I hope that I’m able to lighten their loads a little as a result.

I don’t care so much for the contention, the cheap shots, the name-calling, the general and specific hate-fests, and out-right fights that also comes my way–and I far too often end up hating myself for allowing myself to get dragged into them. There have been a few bright spots that have come out of such, but they are rare and truly few. I’m often left wondering why anyone would consider me a friend and then slip such Trojan horses into my otherwise happy place. I wonder if they would still consider me friends if they knew how offensive I found such things. Or I wonder if they would even care, in which case why should I consider them a friend?

But I’m still on Facebook, even after a long, hard, nasty political cycle that doesn’t seem to want to die. And that’s because I have friends whose posts fall into the former group far more often than the latter. And when their posts tend toward the latter, they are generally more open-minded and gentle about it. Disagreement and reasoned opposition I can handle. A little dig now and then is okay if you at least balance the ledger with things that make me smile or think or enjoy.

And I am grateful for these people. My life is more full, more rich because of the things you add to it. (As an aside, people may mock the internet as only being good for sharing cat pictures, but give me a cute animal picture any day over ranting and blanket denouncing of everyone who doesn’t agree with the poster on whatever topic has them spewing acid from every orifice today. If we have to have an internet, why shouldn’t it be used to bring people enjoyment and smiles?)

I would much rather have Facebook than not. I’m glad for the lift it brings to my day.

That said, I realize I’m largely a Facebook lurker, a passive consumer. I don’t post a lot. I don’t share a lot. I don’t comment much, and when I do, it’s often a snide remark or joke. There have been times when my friends post more things on my feed than I do. Please don’t take it personally. I just don’t think I’m all that interesting, so I don’t say much. And I’m trying harder and harder to live by the Thumper Rule. In an attempt to balance that I’m trying to respond more to your posts, but that’s a habit I’m still trying to build. I’m as much an introvert on social media as I am in analogia.

But thank you to all of you who still care about me and haven’t given up on me yet. Thanks for all the good things you post and for the glimpses into your lives. Thanks for letting me share mine on occasion, and thanks for taking my odd comments in the spirit intended.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a good