". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Anything But Facebook Update

I am doing well on my Facebook diet, but I had a little help this week. I finally succeeded in getting HP to send a box to our current address (rather than our previous one--took three attempts) so that I could send my laptop for warranty service. That means I now have to beg, borrow or steal from others to get computer access. Additionally, I spent most of the week on the road. First, Phillip and I managed a 27th anniversary getaway. Second, I went to Nebraska to pick up Trevor for spring break. Somewhere along the way I also picked up a cold. Welcome, spring!

So, here's my random thought for the day. I noticed during one of my Facebook visits (hey, I'm dieting, not fasting) that the internet (or at least my corner of it) was alive with chatter about the death of someone whose name I don't want to include here. It was a name I didn't recognize so had to look up, at which point I found myself wondering why? Why do so many of my Christian friends feel the need to mark the death of such a disturbed individual? (The person in question called himself a Christian but did some horrendous things, supposedly in the name of Christianity.) Wouldn't it be better to let his passing go unremarked rather than draw attention to it? It is a question I have asked myself at other times. Whether it's starlets behaving badly or preachers teaching falsely, it sometimes seems that we give these people a lot more of our time and attention than they deserve. I wonder what would happen if we utterly ignored them and spent the time saved on promoting and participating in those things we find to be more edifying, focusing on building up the true and the good rather than bemoaning the bad. Probably nothing would change in the world at large. But maybe our own lives would be the better for it. That would be something.


2 comments:

Susan said...

Hey, sister! I guess I'm not doing TOO bad in my FB skimming, because I didn't have a clue who this recently-reposed fellow is. (I asked around the house, and somebody finally figured it out, so my curiosity is assuaged.)

I'm still FB-ing practically every day. And I'm still spending too much time. But I'm not reading all the comments. I'm clicking on very few links. And I'm skimming and rushing through. Of course, the house is still not clean, and I still haven't started a read-aloud with Magser. But I'm wasting a lot less time. I hope it's going that well (or better!) for you.

Cheryl said...

I'm still checking FB every day, too. Even with my computer gone, I have my phone (which I don't use much for FB because it's a very old smartphone and FB doesn't behave well on it and I have trouble seeing it anyway). But I check my trimmed-down group and do the things you describe (skimming, not clicking, not liking or commenting nearly as much as I used to). I find that the longer I can stay away in the morning the easier it is to stay away as the day goes on. But once I check just once, I have to fight that urge to keep going back. And today my computer was returned to me, so we'll see if I can keep my distance as well going forward as I managed to this past week. . . .