Filed under: Facebook | Tags: anger, animal rescue, country music, facebook, homeless animals, Mark Zuckerberg, shady, shadytales, TGTB, this good that bad, trisha yearwood, Twitter, Zuckerberg
Facebook is free and it always will be. That’s what the sign up page says, but make no mistake you will pay for it.
Mom and I are mad at the internet. Facebook, in particular. We are so mad that we dumped our Facebook page. We are mad at cell phones as well. A lot of you are asking why our feelings about these things have changed. Well, Mom is not quite ready to talk about it yet. We are also not ready to give up on this blog or Twitter yet since we met a lot of you wonderful folks here. So what do we do with all this anger?
Ironically, all of this coincided with the TIME magazine announcement of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as their “Person of the Year” for 2010. Apparently, one-twelfth of the world population is wired into his creation. There is no doubt that Facebook has been used to increase awareness for a lot of good causes to include homeless animals. The benefits are there for the taking for those who want to get the word out about anything, but does all this awareness really translate into action?
In our case, yes. We have met, exchanged stories, consoled and been consoled by many as we worked our way through issues like pet loss and animal adoption. We raised some cold hard cash for charity and sold some products too. Deep friendships were formed with what began as business networking, sales, and even recipe exchanges. We have been motivated and inspired. All the while, we completely missed that this online neighborhood is also a costly distraction from real issues in our real lives and among people who needed us.
And so, these real people take action online every day as we do and in some cases are left to make real mistakes no one can recognize until it is too late. They try their hand at something like Facebook and it goes past distraction stage and becomes what Mom and I perceive as a cause of the problems. It isn’t really, we know that. We just want to be mad for a while. And then we want to figure out how to get over it.
We’ll start by taking time to examine other areas in our life that need attention. No matter how painful it may be. We were far too late to set an example and encourage the people we care about most to do this. Since we care about all of you too, we hope you will take our word for it and step away from the PC a little more often. Tune closer into your own lives. Remind everyone you know to do the same. Share this story and spread the word that escape loses its luster quickly if not exercised in moderation.
When we miss the short snippets and status updates, or feel the need to blast out a message like “I am at Starbucks!” to 5 people we know well, 20 people we have met a few times and thousands we have never met, we’ll take pause and choose another route. We may make a call to a friend instead, or compose a long overdue email update to someone we have not seen in a while. We may turn to a person face to face and engage in the lost art of conversation. It may be as simple as talking about the weather or what’s for dinner or as frightening as asking them for something we need and they may not be able to give…but it will be real and it will be just between us and one person. We won’t have an entire friend list to explain it to or have to deal with their negativity, misinterpretations or ill-informed judgments—no matter how well-intentioned they may be.
Oh I forgot to mention country music. We are mad at this entire genre even though we previously loved it. There is one country song that explains how we feel pretty well, though. It inspired the name of this post and we would like to share it. It’s a song recorded by Trisha Yearwood and through it you might be able to relate to what we feel about everything we are mad at. The song is called “Who Invented the Wheel”. A portion of the lyrics are below but it does not do the pain in the singer’s voice justice. Listen to the recorded version if you can. She just wants someone to blame and to understand why someone she loves has hurt her. We are sure she’ll ride in a car again one day, but with a little luck she will not repeat the same mistakes. That’s what we are hoping for, too.
The Wheel: Use at Your Own Risk
I wanna know, who invented the wheel.
Tell me who discovered steel.
It was the wheel and the steel that caused this pain,
That made the car that took him away.
I wanna know, who invented the wheel.
Somebody give me a name.
Cause I just need someone to blame.
For all of this heartache,
And pain I’ve been feelin’ since he had to go,
I wanna know.
See all lyrics here.
To all who have reached out to us and continue to tell us stories and ask how we are doing, we thank you. You will keep us from ignoring the good part of the internet but at this point we don’t know how often we will be checking in. In the meantime, please continue to support the many great animal causes on Facebook. Support them online but also consider getting out of your chair and visiting your local animal groups. Become a hands-on volunteer or try to attend and event to meet some of the people and animals behind the online images. Someone has to keep Zuckerberg and his wheel from taking over the world.
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What a great reminder! Yes there is life outside of this PC and it is far more worthy to live it vs through a stream.
Have a great day!
Comment by Vikki January 11, 2011 @ 9:34 amThanks Vikki, you too!
Comment by Shady January 11, 2011 @ 11:24 amThis IS a great reminder….but I also am wondering what happened??
I am not on Facebook nearly as much as I used to be. I post my blog link, check a few statuses, play a few games but sadly reading the 100s of blogs that I follow actually takes up MOST of my time and it is causing a great deal of internal stress.
I HAVE to do it because I am unemployed and hope to one day be able to monetize my blog more. My blog has made me get back the sense of self I lost when I lost my job, it has given me a purpose and enabled me to meet some fabulous people (like yourself)…without it, I hate to think what would have happened.
But I DO understand your aversion to Facebook and cell phones (I HATE CELL PHONES!)
Hope all is well!
Comment by caren gittleman January 11, 2011 @ 11:14 amHi Shady,
What a great article. I must say that I do agree with you and know how you feel.
Sometimes, FB can be overwhelming and you feel as though, you MUST update and get back to people which is really odd how it is changing. I sometimes feel as though, I would love to take a break from FB.
With all that said, I changed my mindset and this is the way I look at it for “my own” personal self. I have met a lot of great people using FB, I have caught up with some old friends and correspond with them now b/c of FB. Yet, this still becomes overwhelming for me sometimes. So the way, I spin it for myself is that I get together with old friends in person and use my wall to share some odds and ends for meeting up with friends or sharing great news and not that I just ate a Bagel, lol!
I do not instantly respond back to ppl on my wall because they they expect it. I lay low sometimes to give myself a mind break.
For business purposes, it is hard to ignore FB because of the way you can share media…
I love all your posts but especially thank you for writing this one! Great post and keep those paws up!
Dave
Dave
Comment by Dave Abbott January 11, 2011 @ 12:01 pmThanks Dave. If we are not careful, eventually we won’t have any real life left to post about.
Comment by Shady January 11, 2011 @ 12:04 pmExactly! That is why whenever I get that overwhelming feeling, I say, oops, need to give it a break..
– I now really use FB for business and on my own Profile Page to simple act weird, lol!
Have a great long weekend you two! Love your blogs and keep up your amazing work!
Dave
Comment by Dave January 15, 2011 @ 10:02 pmOh my! This was well done, and so true. While the Internet is a godsend for terribly shy people like myself, I find myself thinking things like “When did I last read for 2 hours?” and “What does fresh air feel like?” and “I wish I could walk down the street and see life.”
Whatever it is that happened, I’m so sorry it made you so sad, and I hope you find things – no matter how little – to make you happy again.
Comment by curator January 11, 2011 @ 10:39 pmVery nice post Shady. It is a good reminder to people to keep balance in their lives. The pack and I especially like this part:
“Support them online but also consider getting out of your chair and visiting your local animal groups. Become a hands-on volunteer or try to attend an event to meet some of the people and animals behind the groups you support online.”
Comment by Jo January 12, 2011 @ 1:15 amGreat post. We do all need a reminder to step away from our computers (guilt setting in as I’m typing this). I recently entered the blog world as a fun way to research for our upcoming trip, but it’s quickly turned into the ultimate time-consumer.
Love your reply that “eventually we won’t have any real life left to post about”. So true!
Comment by According to Gus January 12, 2011 @ 12:24 pmyou are right on! it’s really amazing how quickly we can get sucked into FB or blogging or whatever else and neglect having person-to-person interaction. that’s not to say that FB, blogging, etc. aren’t constructive things, but your post is an important reminder that moderation is key. besides, i’m getting ticked at FB as well because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain your privacy. i may be joining you in getting rid of FB if it continues going down the road it’s going…
the booker man and asa’s mama
Comment by the booker man January 16, 2011 @ 8:33 pm