thought for the day

i have decided to take a hiatus from Facebook statuses for myself.  i enjoy Facebook and will still go there and like things on other peoples' pages and pictures and the pages that i have subscribed to.  But, i am going to try very hard, for awhile at least, to not use my status option and comment as little as possible.  That is why i have my blog...to express my real feelings outside of the scrutiny of other people.  Not that i mind having others comment, but, as i am guilty of it in the past too, most people do not think before they say something on Facebook.  It has taken me a long time to figure out what Facebook means to me.....nothing other than a source of entertainment.  That is all.  i do not want to take it any more seriously than that other wise it will suck up whatever soul i have left.

Three things have led me to this today.  One is something that happened to me on Facebook that made me realize how i often treat others on there.  We all have things that we enjoy in life.  Who is to judge what I like or don't like?  No one but myself.  And it hurts my feelings being made fun of because of things that i enjoy.  i was having a lovely conversation on my own page with a friend who shares a love for dishes.  It isn't often that i get to talk about that because it's really not Michael's thing and no one really comes to the house to often that is a dish lover.  So, while i'm having this conversation, someone sends me a message blatantly making fun of the talk i am having.  i realize that it was meant in jest, but at the time it angered me because up until then i was really enjoying myself.  And it made me look back at things i have said that might have hurt someone's feelings in a similar situation.  i have a friend that is a Celine Dion fanatic and i have made several jokes at his expense because of that.  It was not until this happened to me that i realized i was guilty of the same thing.  And i have made a conscious effort not do to that any more because my friend obviously gets great pleasure out of Celine and i am in no place to make judgement on that, be it a joke or not.

The second thing is just the disrespect some people have.  When Dean Smith passed away a few weeks ago, most of my Facebook friends were saddened by it.  He touched many lives directly and indirectly.  i will admit that i do not enjoy basketball, but i know that he meant a great deal to many people.  And, from what i have read, Mr. Smith did many good, humanitarian things during his lifetime.  And i find it disrespectful not to let people morn someone that they looked up to.  Several of my Facebook friends were ranting and raving about all of the posts on Mr. Smith and how they did not care that he had died and wish people would just shut up about it.  And yet, these same people today have been posting how sad they are at the loss of Leonard Nimoy.  i guarantee you that they would get pissed as hell and start unfriending people if they started talking about Mr. Nimoy's passing like they themselves talked about Mr. Smith's.

The third thing goes alongs the lines of disrespect and judgement.  Whenever there is a basketball or football game on, my Facebook feed is flooded with play by play updates.  i, honestly, could care less.  And sometimes i will post a status making a joke about it because i really don't care if people are watching it.  They enjoy it and should be allowed to post whatever they want on their walls about it.  People will laugh at the joke and we all move on.  That's how it goes.  i enjoy watching award shows.  Now, i will post something every now and then while watching it, but i'm not one to do a play by play of it because then i'm not really watching lol  Take the Oscars last week.  i watched it with some friends and had a great time.  And i enjoyed reading my friends' commentaries on the fashions, the awards and yes, Lady Gaga's Sound of Music tribute.  However, the next morning i had more than a few friends on FB posting condemning messages about the awards show, pretty much belittling anyone who spent their time watching.  Why do they even care?  What is the point of squelching someone else's enjoyment in life.  This day and age there is so precious little to enjoy anyway, why crap all over it?  And believe me, there's a fine line between making light hearted fun of something and just being a hateful bitch.  i know...i can be both.

And lately, i guess this a fourth thing, which can happen in a stream of consciousness kind of way, i am realizing that intelligent people are clinging to Facebook as their source of education, learning and news.  Most things that go viral on the internet are not news or educational.  They may be entertaining, thought provoking or clever, but not news so stop trying to compare apples to oranges.  If you don't want to see posts about topics, there's a lovely little button you can click on that gives you the option not to see posts on that subject.  Isn't that convenient?  Based on this morning's long list of posts on my feed about some dress that may be blue and black or gold and white, i don't know because i never clicked the article, some people were bitchingly stating the obvious that it was not newsworthy or educational.  DUH!!!!  Who cares if it's not.  Sometimes it is just nice to log into a website and not be inundated with the depressing things going on around us. 

Oh well, that's all i'm going to say right now because i'm going to go and log onto Facebook to see what all of the puppy mill rescue dogs i follow have been up to today.

Cheers!