Lent, Second Edition

During Lent, 2011, Hubby and I gave up facebook. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. We didn't even cheat on Sundays. At least he didn't. I did on the third Sunday. We had time on our hands. We had to communicate the old fashioned way!

Then Easter Sunday came and went. I was perusing facebook that night and I was enjoying some pictures that "friends" had posted. I noticed one particular picture that someone had posted of the inside of their church from that morning. It was exquisite. It had beautiful woodwork and it was traditional to the bones. So, I "liked" the picture and asked if it was in the same city in which he lived. This guys response was, "Try xxxxx". Really? How in the world am I supposed to know? I'm glad I'm happy at the church we attend. That would have been a great opportunity to share his church home with others. I "unliked" the photo and deleted my comment. Whatever.

Maybe my response was extreme. But, I'm not sure that his response could have been taken in any other way. If so, oh well.

While we were abstaining from facebook during Lent, Hubby and I had discussed continuing not to participate. Either we would only look on Sundays or just delete our accounts altogether. Of course deleting our accounts altogether would be easy since we hadn't been that much into it during the Lenten season. But, I felt a tug. Delete my account? Take a breath, it will be okay.

Then we watched a show on one of the cable news networks called, "The Facebook Obsession". It highlighted the start of facebook and some of the ups and downs along the way. It all started in a dorm room at Harvard by Mark Zuckerberg. His original concept was called "facemash", where he had input Harvard students pictures on the web site and he asked for people to vote on the prettiest/ugliest students. Sounds lovely, huh? It was quickly taken down.

The Facebook Obsession highlighted a reunion story of an adult woman looking for her birth mother. I guess that's okay when both want to be found. They also brought attention to police departments who had captured criminals through the web site. Yeah for criminals being captured! One woman that the show featured was employed as a school principal. She was fired after her "private" rants about the students were seen as inappropriate. The principal had blamed facebook for her firing. I don't blame facebook, facebook didn't make her put those things on her wall. She did.

Our privacy on the site is constantly being sacrificed. The site is constantly making changes, but those changes aren't made very well known unless someone gets a hold of it and spreads the word. Even though I think my wall is private, it's not. As the show continued, I think it made it a little easier for us to stomach deleting our accounts. First we have to go in and delete our photos one by one. Joy.

The producers of the show requested an interview with Zuckerberg, but their request was denied. They were referred to the facebook's privacy page on the site.

The show also aired a partial interview by Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal. She sat down with Zuckerberg for an interview and some of the questions weren't even that hard hitting, but he was sweating profusely. Some have called it, his "Nixon moment". This socially awkward young adult who started the biggest social network there is to date.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't an attack on anyone who chooses to participate on facebook. It's just that we are finding it easier not to. Come Friday, we will start to delete the pictures one by one on our pages and say good-bye.

The Facebook Obsession

21 Days

It's been 21 days without facebook! The funny thing is, my world didn't come to an end. Amazeballs! Twenty one days of not worrying if so and so saw my latest post, or if I was or wasn't the intended target of someone else's post. I'm not worrying why that person sent "Happy Birthday" wishes to her and I didn't get any. It truly is out of sight, out of mind.

It's been three weeks of not getting twisted up into knots over garbage spewed out by people with opposing political/social/religious views. Isn't there enough stress in life without adding that crap to the mix? 

It's been twenty one days free of the abbreviations, LOL, ROFL, FML, FOCLOL, FTW, FOCROFLOL, BRB, BBS, and BS. Half of those I don't even know what they mean. And I don't care either. If it's not funny enough to spell the whole thing out, why bother?

I did wonder what the reaction was after Brad chose Emily. But it was so long after the fact that I was wondering that nobody would have been talking about it still. When Elizabeth Taylor died, it was on all the entertainment shows what celebrities were tweeting. Honestly, if you don't respect her enough to spell out "Rest in Peace", why bother? I'm sure 140 characters will allow you that much. 

I chose to cheat for one brief moment. There was one birthday that I wanted to acknowledge by snail mail. I had their address in my facebook messages. I checked my messages for their address. I filled out the envelope and logged out. That was it, I swear! Before Lent started I did prepare other birthday wishes by using the Hallmark facebook application. Is that cheating? 

Is it cheating when I visit a web site (protecttheclassroom.com) to click on the little facebook "like" button? I haven't done it since it would show up in the facebook newsfeed. Since facebook wasn't around in Jesus' time I can't really apply the question, "What would Jesus Do?". I'm pretty sure He could care less! 

I'm not trying to come across as pretentious or judgmental. This is my journey through Lent 2011. With three weeks left it's easy-cheesy-lemon-squeezy. 

P.S. I'm not blaming the tool. That would be like blaming a gun when someone shoots another person. It's the person who is to blame. I'm choosing not to play the game. 

Lent: Day 1

This year I've decided to give up facebook for Lent. An opportunity to get closer to God and far more distanced from my computer. Closer to my Creator, and farther apart from those that might not have the best of intentions. 

Draw me closer to you, Lord. 

I've never really taken Lent seriously before I met my husband. Over lengthy discussions over time it was made clear that sacrificing something so little for such a short period of time pales to what Christ sacrificed for me. I've tried in the past, one thing or another with giving up something. It was always in the back of my mind that Sunday was coming and I could "cheat" on that day. Christ didn't "cheat". 

Remain in me, Lord. 

I guess I've always used the excuse that I'm not as strong as others and I gave in to a spirit of failure. That I'm not "as big" of a Christian as this person or that person. That it might be expected of me to not succeed. In all reality, I didn't totally depend on Christ to get me through. 

I can do anything in Christ, who strengthens me. 

Granted as I write this, it's only halfway through day one. I'm sort of praying for the desire of facebook to just go away. May this Easter season give me a stronger faith, patience, love and forgiveness that I need. 

May Jesus be my only social network.