Empty spaces
Sep. 8th, 2020 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ephraimjohnIt's another post about social media! Content will get more varied once I have exhausted my thoughts on this, I hope.
So, I'm still off FB. I'm not missing it at all, in truth, and I do very occasionally pop on to check the groups of which I am a member. I have recently signed up to NPC Qualia for Mia and Adrian and have a feeling that this will require my presence on Facebook a little for coordination. I'll be interested to see how that makes me feel. Generally, however, my break from it is helping. I am more chilled, I think, and it feels overall like a positive.
It's not all great, though. I miss hearing about my friends. FB was often like seeing one's friends in the distance at a party. It's not a "real" engagement, but I could see if they were happy and smiling, or sad and downcast. If it was the latter then I could seek them out for a more meaningful interaction. I miss that passing check, even when it was as moderated as heavily as Zuckerberg's platform.
I'm also finding myself bored occasionally. There was an easy busyness to checking and responding on facebook. I find myself picking up my phone to check something, and finding that the stories on BBC news are the same as they were an hour ago; that my email has only received marketing mail and that the #NFFC twitter feed is full of the same moaning that it was previously. I have become accustomed to a rolling feed of changing news and given that it is now gone, I am left a little adrift. I'm also noticing the gaps in my life that it has left empty. If I'm not feeling like gaming, or I don't want to watch TV, I used to faff on FB. But now, I find myself wondering what to do instead. Often the answer is to go to bed, which is probably in itself quite healthy, but I want to try to parlay it into read a book or go for a run. That's going to take some work, I think.
The other thing that seems to either have coincided with this, or be driven by it, is that I have returned to trying online dating. It's traditionally not been very successful for me, I don't really think that I have got the hang of it ever, but I am trying again. I shall probably share some observations soon.
So, I'm still off FB. I'm not missing it at all, in truth, and I do very occasionally pop on to check the groups of which I am a member. I have recently signed up to NPC Qualia for Mia and Adrian and have a feeling that this will require my presence on Facebook a little for coordination. I'll be interested to see how that makes me feel. Generally, however, my break from it is helping. I am more chilled, I think, and it feels overall like a positive.
It's not all great, though. I miss hearing about my friends. FB was often like seeing one's friends in the distance at a party. It's not a "real" engagement, but I could see if they were happy and smiling, or sad and downcast. If it was the latter then I could seek them out for a more meaningful interaction. I miss that passing check, even when it was as moderated as heavily as Zuckerberg's platform.
I'm also finding myself bored occasionally. There was an easy busyness to checking and responding on facebook. I find myself picking up my phone to check something, and finding that the stories on BBC news are the same as they were an hour ago; that my email has only received marketing mail and that the #NFFC twitter feed is full of the same moaning that it was previously. I have become accustomed to a rolling feed of changing news and given that it is now gone, I am left a little adrift. I'm also noticing the gaps in my life that it has left empty. If I'm not feeling like gaming, or I don't want to watch TV, I used to faff on FB. But now, I find myself wondering what to do instead. Often the answer is to go to bed, which is probably in itself quite healthy, but I want to try to parlay it into read a book or go for a run. That's going to take some work, I think.
The other thing that seems to either have coincided with this, or be driven by it, is that I have returned to trying online dating. It's traditionally not been very successful for me, I don't really think that I have got the hang of it ever, but I am trying again. I shall probably share some observations soon.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 07:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 08:01 am (UTC)