June 17, 2020Facebook

Bleah.

And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

But I am learning to adjust.

The funniest email I ever got from my web guy was the reply he sent me one Monday morning early last year after I let him know that over the previous weekend I had indeed signed up for a Facebook account. He simply said: "Congratulations and my sympathies."

It all came about, because at the end of the previous week he had suggested that I needed to be on social media. And I dug in my heels. Nope. It ain't happening. Just forget it. Let's don't talk about that anymore, thank you very much! I do not do social media! And that little tirade launched me into one of those weekends that won't soon be forgotten.

There's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called The Game where the entire crew except for Wesley Crusher and his girlfriend are addicted to a game that has everyone so absorbed and distracted that life on the ship is in peril. Everyone on the ship is walking around with a glassy, spaced out expression on their face, totally oblivious to reality. The enemy was distracting them and setting them up for the kill. And that's exactly how I viewed social media.

As if it's not bad enough that we all walk around with our faces down, noses to our phones, barely able or willing to look a real person in the eye and engage in the risky business of – gasp! – conversation ... let's throw in some Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Now instead of talking to each other, we talk at each other in 5-line quips and platitudes. We're all political experts, health experts, life-in-general experts, and the world really needs to hear our thoughts on those matters! I didn't want any part of it.

So God and I had a little chat that weekend about my views of social media. Remember, He was the One originally who brought up the idea of getting a website. And I knew He wasn't just giving me a shiny toy to play with just 'cause it would be fun. He had a purpose for it all and there was already a lot of stretching and molding happening inside of me as a result of having the site. And it hadn't all been so bad ... but this was where I drew the line ... NO SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

But I was going to find out the hard way ... it's not wise to complain to Him about the company He told you to hire and the fact they're advising you to do things that you don't particularly want to do. Because when you say No! to the folks He sent to help you, you're really telling Him No! I didn't want to hear that. But I was gonna' have to hear it ...

I had my side of the argument all figured out ...

You know, I told Him, I'm supposed to be IN the world, and not OF the world. (I'm good at this ... I could spiritualize poison ivy if the situation called for it.) And we both know that, with my kind of personality, I'm most likely going to get all caught up with it and waste lots of time when I should be working. And it's just another thing the world flings at us, and everybody rushes out to get on board with the new thing, and I'm not like that and I don't care about that. And why do I need 500 strangers befriending me? I prefer my handful of real-life friends and family that I can go to dinner with and spend time with and have real, important, actual conversations with. If I get on Facebook I'll just get sucked into the system that's trying to control, manipulate and drive us all in some terrible direction where I DON'T WANT TO GO!!!

I called this an "argument". But God doesn't argue. He just waited quietly and didn't respond to me at all. He had already told me through my web company what He wanted me to do: it was time to get on social media. I knew it. He knew it. We're just all waiting for Sherry to get on board with the plan. Didn't matter if I liked it or not. Pooh.

So I signed up for a Facebook account. And lived to tell the tale ...

Yeah, everything I thought about it is basically true ... many days on Facebook I feel controlled, manipulated and pushed towards some vague agenda. They nag me if I don't post often enough to their liking. I don't always get shown current posts from folks I've liked and followed. Some folks I like and follow disappear completely for a while, then magically pop up again out of the blue. I get badgered constantly to pay money to have my posts boosted. Some days my post reaches 50 people! Then the next post might reach 3. And I didn't do anything differently. I still don't know exactly how to do it correctly ... probably because I'm not as interested and engaged as I should be. Still, I can't honestly say I don't like it ...

If I hadn't jumped onto Facebook I would've never met my friend, Alice Hancox, from across the pond in merry old England. She writes amazing books that shouldn't be read in the dark! Well ... actually that's the best way to read Alice's books ... but I'm a wuss with an overactive imagination, so I'll keep reading those in the middle of the day!!

And I would've missed hearing my fav, Neil Diamond, singing his re-write of Sweet Caroline ... "hands, not touching hands ..." in response to the covid virus. And a special concert during the lockdown from Neil Sedaka. And all the bantering back and forth with friends and family. And all the funny, inspiring and thought-provoking posts from Dixie and Kathy and Brenda and friends from church. And how about those bad days when someone posts exactly the verse you needed to see that day ...

If I hadn't been on Facebook, I wouldn't have discovered and met magician, Paul Draper, who hired me to draw for him! How about THAT! Even got my own private magic show to do research with him on a live Zoom call!

So, yeah, I suppose I'm going to survive being on social media after all ... but don't get too excited ...

... it's still gonna' be a while before I'll admit it out loud ...