Did you send me a friend request? Did you get back on Facebook? I got a few of these text messages yesterday after I created a new FB account, having permanently deleted the previous one two years ago. In answer to the questions, I replied, “Yeah, I figured I’d punished Mark Zuckerbooger long enough with my absence. Lol.”
This comes just days after my newfound haircutter here not believing that the photos I presented were of me when I showed her what kind of haircut I wanted. ‘Yes, that really is me,’ I had to say convincingly. What is it with people not believing that I am who I say I am? Lol.
I do think it’s kind of funny, especially since I just saw a YouTube video of some 39-year-old ‘influencer’ from a PR firm (naturally) in Austin, Texas almost losing it on video (which I suppose was the point) because she was not able to recognize the person she was seeing in the mirror. Apparently she was aging at (documentable) lightening speed. To be honest, I thought the subject-matter pathetic, so I didn’t watch the whole video. Besides, I had better things to do. Both when I was 39 and even now.
I’ve been away from FB since the end of 2020, and I have gotten used to not automatically accessing it when I wake up or when I’m bored. In fact, ever since I deleted that account, I’ve appreciated NOT seeing fake news and propaganda or people’s posts about whatever political thing was happening, whether it be the fake vaccine, the fake insurrection, the fake war in Ukraine, or the many other fake events of the past couple of years. When I realized I was actually judging people by what they posted, I knew that the right thing for my own sanity was to move on. I have no business judging anybody. At the time, getting off FB was one of the best things I could have ever done for my mental health, especially given the past couple of years.
That was then, and this is now. I have legitimate reasons for returning to FB, one of them being my age, of all things. Perhaps the fact that I’m researching lip fillers and more on the internet is an indication that at least I don’t have a problem believing it’s me I see in the mirror. (There I go being judgmental again.) But at least I’m thinking about doing something about it, which is probably like shutting the barn door after the horses have left, but I’ve got to try. Maybe I should be a 68-year-old influencer, lol.
What matters to me is the realization that I could very well become addicted to FB (because that is my very nature) and that awareness is something I am really grateful about. This is my only concern with getting back on FB, which is a decision I hope I don’t regret. I’m grateful that I know myself well enough to know that this could be a time-suck, so I just adjusted the settings on my phone and put a 15 minute time limit on all my social media with a 5-minute warning of when it is over. Instantaneously I received this:
How could I have already used up ten minutes—it’s just now 6:30 a.m? Oh, now I remember. I’d reached for my phone in the middle of the night when the pups’ stirring awakened me. I had perused Telegram for apparently ten minutes. Obviously I’ll have to re-think the time limit I place upon myself, but it’ll have to be something minimal, because I know myself better now than I ever have before. I want to always have better things to do than scroll endlessly. Like write! Today will be an interesting experiment; if nothing else, the personal experience will give me something to write about yet something else to be grateful for.
If truth be told, I’m grateful to be back on FB. It will make it easier to connect with certain people, and face it, at this age, people are dropping when least expected. And when I DO, I want certain people to know, lol. But really, it was an eye-opening moment the other day when Dave had to show me a photo on his FB account a dear friend of mine who had posted a photo of a little group of us RVing-friends who’d gotten together earlier that day for lunch. And it wasn’t an ordinary lunch date; it was at least a 160-mile round trip for all of us. I want to be able to see moments like that myself. Instantaneously.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. ~2 Chronicles 7:14
