The decision to do so has been coming on gradually (ever since the introduction of the News Feed four years ago), but I never thought I would actually do it. It annoyed me when my friends deactivated their profiles for long periods of time (which usually happened after breakups) and they were suddenly gone. It wasn't until I myself suffered from a broken heart that I saw why they deactivated their profiles. A person with a broken heart wants privacy while they heal. They want to hide away from prying eyes. I could respect it, but it still bothered me enough that I never went through with it.
Facebook began as a useful tool to connect and keep in touch with old high school friends and new college ones. I loved being able to share photos with friends and say quick hellos. I met one of my best friends on Facebook the summer before I began college. She saw on my profile that we would be next door to each other in the dorm. We shared messages over the summer and found that we had a lot in common. We were instant friends and she remains my "twin" to this day. So as an emerging college freshman, it was very comforting to connect with my classmates before moving in. It wasn't long after we arrived at school, however, that the News Feed appeared. Like many Facebook users, I was seriously offended by the assumption that I was nosy enough to want to see everything that my Facebook friends were doing on the site. Despite outraged comments to the creators, however, the feature remained. Facebook became less about connecting and more about "stalking," stalking that required little to no effort, except for the occasional click of the mouse.
It wasn't long before I became more of a nosy neighbor than a loving one. I learned things about people without ever talking to them. I spent hours everyday clicking on random people and random links simply out of boredom. I often considered deleting people I never spoke to, but deleting someone from Facebook opens up a whole new world of drama, a world that just shouldn't exist. It is almost vain how offended we can become when people delete us from Facebook: "Why doesn't she want to hear what I have to say? What did I ever do to her?" In fact, editing my profile and picture, and updating my status were often out of vanity. I spent hours everyday both "stalking" people I barely spoke to in person and editing my page to give off a certain impression of myself. Why was it that I wanted to know so much about these people's lives without ever getting to know the people themselves? Why did I want them to know so much about me? It was all so fake. Nothing was real about it except the time that I was wasting.
There were times when Facebook did bring together the faith community that I left at school. Some days seemed to be full of inspiring and encouraging quotes and videos, when everyone seemed to unite for or against some cause. Those days filled me with hope and courage to continue fighting the good fight. I loved that aspect of it, being able to come together that way. But lately I have noticed more and more the lack of a faith community that exists in my home parish, where God clearly wants me right now. The excess noise created on Facebook was only serving as a distraction from the battle raging in my own backyard.
Hopefully, now I will be able to hear my Commanding Officer more clearly.
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