Since my last post I received a few msgs from people saying that I should have delved deeper
in the subject. I do realise that I kept my distance from the core of the topic
but I did so on purpose. First and foremost I have to say that the experiment
was a success as far as I’m concerned because I did manage to break away from Facebook
entirely and I'm filling up my time with activities I actually like doing. Things
that when I look up at the clock make me feel fulfilled and positive that I didn’t
let time slip away. My posts have been limited and my interactions with my Facebook
friends have been limited too. After 16 days I finished the experiment I only
had one chat of about an hour with a close friend from Malta sometime this
week. If you had to ask me if I miss it?
I actually don’t. If you ask me if I miss the human interaction I don’t either.
Now I don’t want to offend any of my friends and I do love to keep in touch but
allow me here to really put to words what my introspective journey have lead
me to during that week.
It is very hard for me to write about this without somehow
delving into my personal life and essentially it’s the reason why I didn’t
write in detail about my findings. In fact it has taken me so long to write the
final follow up simply because I didn’t know how to tackle the topic without
doing so but because I want to move on with my blog I will try and be creative
and move past this stumbling block and finish what I started.
My social life can be as busy or as quite as I want it to be,
I’m in the driving seat! Obviously I hear you say...... but it’s not believe me. My life hasn’t been
like that for many years and without dwelling much on it I have to admit that
there were phases in my life where Facebook WAS all of my social life. As my life was morphing and changing I made
new friends and rekindled old friendships. I have a phone book full of acquaintances
and when I want to I’m just a phone call or msg away from the next experience or
adventure. I have to admit that London can be either your Oyster or your Snake
Pit in that respect and the only difference is whether you take a leap of faith
into life or not. I choose the former because as I always said the world will
keep going round and it’s purely my choice if I go round with it or let me drag
me.
So here is where I answer all the rhetorical questions I
have placed on my last blog. Do I use Facebook to vent my frustrations? Yes!!!
I was doing that simply because I knew that there would always be someone
willing to listen and comment, which is in itself amazing and comforting but
all said and done does it really help? No! Most of the times I was chatting
about something privately with friends who like me seemed to have the luxury of
time to be on FB for long hours at a time and when I think about it, how much
more like me were these people? Were we really helping each other or was it a
case of the lame leading the blind? I have to admit that in some though hours I
did find help from friends across Europe over chat but there is a fine line
between tough hours and forgetting to keep your pace up with the world that
will not stop for you.
As I have been discovering very recently very few people can
hold my attention for a substantial amount of time. I used to blame myself and
think that it’s down to my short attention span but in reality it has got
nothing to do with it. There are quite a few people in my life who are very
capable of holding my attention for hours and some even for days and I’m pretty
sure that by now you are wondering what I’m driving to with this ……. Well it’s
very easy; if I was sitting in a pub with a friend or an acquaintance and while
talking to them I get this urge to have a peek at Facebook it means that my
attention is veering from the discussion which in the end means that my time
would have been better spent elsewhere. I know this might not be the nicest
thing to say and because my phone is an extension of me I don’t want everyone
to think that because I’m sending a text it means that I’m not interested in their
company but as I have said before this is a personal journey and like every
personal journey there may be some unsavoury parts to it. With that in mind I
was simply using Facebook as an escape route from otherwise boring situations
which is ironic really because when I think about it Facebook is one of the
most boring things ever. Yes I just said it! It is boring because it’s simply
mind numbing at best and people keep going back to it like drug addicts keep
going back to heroin. Here I apologize to those of you who find this offensive
and I guess now you know the other reason why I didn’t write about it in depth
the first time round.
Going back to the element of human interaction – I think
these social media tools are precious for human interaction especially for
someone like me who has been living away from their own country and family for
several years. I can only assure that being able to watch my nephew cut his
birthday cake and sing happy birthday to him with the rest of the family when I
couldn’t physically be there, was priceless. So I am thankful for the luxury
these tools offer yet there is such a fine line between living a life aided by
them or hampered by them.
Once again I want to emphasize that this is a personal journey
I am sharing here and that these are my personal thoughts and opinions purely
driven from my own experiences and by no means am I trying to insult or hurt
anyone.
With the hope that by now I don’t have a haters club, I
salute you from my Oyster :-)
Love,
Graziella x
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