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| From my files, female cardinal in maple tree. |
I decided that I was going to take a break from Facebook to minimize the amount of negativity I was finding around me. Well, that lasted three days until I was back on the site. Yesterday morning I got a notice that someone had mentioned me in a post. I wanted to find out more and that was it. I not only read that post, but started scrolling. But you know what? I'm not that sorry that I didn't last longer because Facebook is not all bad. Here are a few things I saw this morning that I enjoyed.
1. A bad joke-"What was Harper Lee's favorite drink? Toquilla mocking bird."
2. Beautiful pictures of a crescent moon from Maine
3. A picture of my grandmother with her older daughter and her first granddaughter.
4. A picture of a baby gorilla. My nephew is a primate zoo keeper at the National Zoo and every time there is a shut down of the zoo, he posts a picture a day of one of the primates with a clever caption. The pictures are great and the captions are even better.
5. A link to a song by the Mama's and Papa's. One friend frequently posts links to old songs. I appreciate that she does the work of finding them.
6. A picture of a tree made from puzzle pieces done by a friend. I'm going to have to investigate this more because it was looked really neat.
7. A recipe for harvest stew.
8. Mention of a local event I want to see.
9. Notice about a happening in my neighborhood.
It took some discipline to just focus on these things. I had to scroll quickly past several negative, hostile posts to see them, but I did. I rarely read any negative posts in their entirety before, but would read enough to know what they were about--and that was too much for me. But focusing on the fun stuff, was just right this morning. I'm not going to avoid FB for now. My new goal is to keep scrolling when I sense that a post is negative and to enjoy the rest. After all, I'm looking for positivity and there is a lot to be found on FB.
Another day, I'll talk about the amount of time that can be spent on places like FB.
Love the cardinal picture.
ReplyDeleteWe have a family Facebook account so we can access a few things, but I've never jumped on the bandwagon. At times like this, I'm glad that I haven't, although I agree that there are some positives to be found. I try to view things like Facebook (or even television) as a tool and it's up to me to use the tool wisely (which can be easier said than done). I'm glad you are finding a positive way to use it!
I only post once or twice a year, so I don't spend much time that way. However, I do check it most days and am usually glad I did. That's the way I find out what's going on with some of the family since that's the only way they communicate. Ward and my kids don't have accounts, so it's my responsibility to share with them any information I find out. And along the way, I do see some very clever things.
DeleteI usually check the notifications on my FB account and then, click on those posts that I want to see. If I do check all recent posts, I tend to scroll past posts by certain people. FB is one way I keep in touch with various members of the family, especially those living in other areas of the world.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about blocking some people, but they are real friends and post things that I'm interested in other negativity. So, it's just going to take a little discipline from me.
DeleteI have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I'm on it to stay in touch with friends and family. Main purpose to go on FB is to stalk my daughter haha. But she knows I'm stalking her. What I hate is I don't get all my friends posts. I have to go on their page. I understand the negativity. Tomorrow is suppose to NOT be on FB..like a black out day. I've also noticed others going to Parler (But it went down), MeWe and Telegram.
ReplyDeleteI just learned about MeWe the other day and looked up Telegram right now.
DeleteAs you know, the problem is that FB usage is so widespread, it will be hard to drop it completely. Besides contact with friends and family, I'm also finding that businesses and organizations are not keeping their web pages up-to-date, but use FB instead to post their latest information.