And I am Doing Fine!
To clarify, I don’t consider a blog social media really. This is my diary, my opinion and is one-sided. Nothing too social about that.
About a year ago, the election was over, fires were burning across the country as riots broke out and the likes of Facebook, Tik Tok and Twitter were heavily laden with opinions from all walks of life.
As I poured through my feeds, I almost felt compelled to respond to inciteful posts from “Friends” who were convinced that their opinion was not only correct, but needed to be shared and affirmed by everyone else. The random posts of vacations or holidays were gone. Instead, memes plastered the landscape, guaranteeing to spark debate. I would sit there and cleverly snipe back, not realizing I was falling into the same trap as everyone else.
Negativity was running rampant. Even my kids felt compelled to try and “Convert” my views to their lens of a new Socialist Order. I was being attacked for being white, conservative, Christian and well-off.
Enough.
There was so much in life that seemed to take a back seat to making sure I was “Defending my position” to a bunch of acquaintances labeled as “Friends” . Who are these people? Most of them I had not seen since high school and even then, they thought little of me.
Funny how things work out.
When I looked at my list of contacts, it was evident that there were only really a handful of true friends on there and maybe a dozen or so family. The rest, well, for those who stuck around and didn’t hit the “Unfriend” button in a fit of misguided, politically-fueled rage, I noticed that there wasn’t any really meaningful discourse. What people don’t understand is that the opinions of everyone don’t count for more or less than anyone else. Each person on Earth has 1 opinion. That’s it. Yours is equal in weight to mine.
So I stopped.
I blocked out my avatars, removed or restricted posts and left. It was a lot more effort to do this than I thought and I was only about 80 percent successful in cleaning things up.
The first few weeks were weird. I found myself grabbing my phone only to find none of the apps installed. Emails flowed in relentlessly (And still do) regarding everything I am missing out on. “You have 175 missed notifications”.
Who cares. If it was really important, call or text me.
A year later, I have all but forgotten about these things. I now spend time attempting to write thoughtful posts here, some public, some private. Most are positive moments from my life. Things that I capture in the moment. It takes effort to put those things here. A lot more than snapping a video, pushing a picture to my newsfeed or tweeting something to the Twitterverse. I have to deliberately want to publish something. I have to decide who should see it, how it should look and if I am proud enough of the post to have even my employer see it.
That is a heavy lift and it makes if far more worthwhile.
I am going to revisit my FB and Twitter accounts once per year. I will simply put a “Hello” and a link to posts like this. If someone really wants to get hold of me, there is a path for that on this site.
However, it is under my terms. My rules. My discretion.
A year in, I am happier. I am less stressed. I am more focused on other things and less focused on the lens of others viewing my beliefs. I have never been one to follow the crowd.
In short – I am doing fine!
God bless you all,
Jim
My Thoughts on Things 