So, What Have I Learned?

As we come up on Palm Sunday I've decided that since the bible tells us that it took Jesus 40 days to cross the desert, and well I've been there in the "not logging into Facebook" realm just as long, maybe I won't wait until Easter to log back into Facebook but before this self imposed Facebook isolation comes to an end I'd like to take a few minutes and talk about how I'm feeling.

In some ways it's been liberating, when I want to talk about things online I've done it here, on the blog, without pissing someone off. Not that I've had much to say, since all of my posts have been about this journey, but still, I haven't felt the need to carefully word everything I've had to say.

Why would it be different on Facebook? Well, it's actually kinda simple, anyone wandering by this page knows it's mine, which is way different than something they might see on a feed while they scroll through on Facebook. I don't worry about accidentally offending someone here and because blogging isn't as real time as Facebook is, I can start a post, save the draft, and finish it later, it's not as rushed and I have more time to flesh out my thoughts, edit and fix things. Simply put, it's just different.

Another plus? Being off of Facebook has given me time to do other things online, such as playing games, catching up on YouTube videos, this blog,Twitter, and I certainly check my email accounts more than I used to. I can't say that the time has been used constructively but I have found other things to do.

Now let's talk about some of the negatives......

I've already talked about the sense of isolation in a few previous blogs so there is no need to rehash that, especially since I just linked them right there.

What are some of the things that I think I might have missed out on? Well, I think the biggest thing for me is how the hell is everyone? Almost all of the people that I've ever met online I've kept up with on Facebook, as I've mentioned in previous blogs (not linking those, go find 'em yourself) I've really made some amazing friends over the years and managed to keep up with them on Facebook.

Of course, there is family, people that I don't talk to all the time or even often, but yet keep up with them on Facebook. This, at least to me, is one of the greatest things about going onto the site, to see what people that I know, that honestly, I should know much better, are up to, and how they are doing. I think of all the things that I've missed about not logging into Facebook, this I've missed most of all. I'm connected by blood (at least in most cases) to some amazing people.

So, what have I learned?

Well, I just talked about my bad ass family, I really need to find a way to connect better with them in real life, not just online. When I figure out how, I'll let you all know.

Facebook is a powerful tool, and it is important, but shouldn't be constantly checked and lived on. I'm sure when I log back in tomorrow that I'll find that my page is ok, and while I might have missed out on some really important things over the last 40 days it'll all still be there for me to comment on, post a like, sad face, grumpy face, or whatever.

I need my own personal space online, meaning this blog. I think I'll change the name of the blog to something else since I'm really not using it for Indie Spotlight anymore. In fact I might do that after I post this. Maybe the Jack Simpson blog? I dunno. Since I'm not doing Indie Spotlight anymore maybe if I'm going to continue to use this space for personal thoughts that I don't want to post directly on Facebook I obviously need to change the title of it.

Most importantly, yes, I do need Facebook, I don't need to constantly check it every 5 minutes.

Honestly, less might be more, if I do that I won't be pissed off every time I need to change my feed to "most recent".

Who knows?

If you've read through all of my blogs on this journey, first of all, thank you, that is a ton of reading. And, as I mentioned in the first blog of this series, if you've come by on this page in years past with a comment, well, again, sorry that I missed you.

Maybe I was stuck on Facebook, I don't see myself making this same mistake in the future.

Maybe Social (Media) Distancing isn't so bad?

Right now I think that maybe it's a good thing that I'm not on Facebook right now.

(keep in mind of course that my pledge was to stay off of Facebook, not other social media sites)

I'm still using Twitter, well, using might not be the best way to describe it, I'm still on Twitter might be a better way to say it. I retweet things here and there while being careful to preserve the Indie Spotlight brand since that is the page's theme.

Another guideline that I've seen although I'm not sure if it's an official CDC guideline, is to limit the time on social media and just from what I've seen on Twitter I can see why, just the hysteria I'm seeing on just one social media website is more than enough for me.

I just couldn't imagine what my Facebook timeline looks like right now. Part of me wants to pop on and see, and the other more rational part of me realizes that the shitstorm that is likely my FB timeline will still be there whenever I decide to log back in.

How Am I Spending My Time Off Facebook?

Mostly watching YouTube videos.

Have I Cheated and Checked into Facebook?

Man, it really has been hard to not break my pledge, my promise, and not log into Facebook.

I can't count the number of times that I've thought to myself, that to pop on, yeah, it'll be ok, it's cool, let's see whats going on.

And yet, I haven't.

Has it been easy?

Nope, but that was the whole point in this wasn't it?

Will I Ever Give Up Facebook for Lent Ever Again?

After Lent is over, and I make my triumphant return to Facebook, will I be giving it up for Lent ever again?

Um, hell no, this has been really hard to do, I really have to commend the people that do this every year. Seriously, how the hell you all do this, every year, I'll never know.

Maybe it's because of all the shit that's going on right now, with the COVID-19 pandemic happening, man, it's hard to put into words what is running through my mind right now.

Would I be a social media justice warrior squashing all the misinformation that is being shared right now? I really don't know, before I began this journey I was really starting to hate all of that. So, would I have gone into sharing more cute and de-stressing things instead? I really don't know.

All I can tell you is this, had I remained on Facebook during this time I would have joined the "stay at home" movement, hell I might have revived the live streaming broadcast for a virtual place for people to hang out, in fact the only reason I haven't done that is because I'm sticking to staying off of Facebook, which would have been my main avenue to promote it.

Since I've already given the short answer to the question above, would I do this again, which is no, now you have the longer answer, which is still no, especially since I feel the isolation that I've talked about in previous blogs in a BIG way.

Facebook has it's purpose, the site has a reason to exist, so now, at least for me is the bigger question, is it a site that we should constantly live on? How different will my relationship with the site when I log back on? We need social media, we are all connected, but does it need to be an obsession?

I think, or at least hope that it'll be very different than how it was before I began this journey. I've learned that while I do need Facebook to find out what's going on, how my friends are dealing with current events, and yes, to be kind of a bullshit buster, I don't need to constantly click back onto the website in an almost obsessive way.

While I do need Facebook, I don't need to come back to Facebook like I was before.

Maybe if nothing else I've learned that along the way.

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Ok, this space at the end of the blog was once show notes, then it turned into what the next blog post would be about, going forward this addendum will no longer exist.  I put a TBD on the last blog post because I didn't know what I was going to blog about, and I feel that way now, so, no further need to put a "preview" out there unless I feel like I should.

RIP Gambler

I've certainly spent more than enough time talking about modern music and how much of it sucks on this page over the years, but maybe not enough time talking about how some get it right, especially the old guard that actually had to pay their dues.

Kenny Rogers was certainly one of those guys.

From Wikipedia;

Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, and topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold over 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career, and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.

You picked a fine time to leave us, rest easy gambler.

Feeling Just a Bit Left Out

First, the missed notification update......

31 photo tags?  And ya'll have seen my current profile picture who in the hell sent me a friend request? Well, in a little less than a month I'll find out. Oh, and we're up to 61 missed notifications, with everything going on I don't doubt that things are a little busy on Facebook these days.


So, without further ado I'll dive into today's topic.

This one has been kind of hard to put into words but I'll give it a go.

I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts about how isolated I feel abstaining from Facebook, and even though I know many of the people on my friends list online only, I am wondering how everyone is doing, not to mention the family members that I've managed to find over the years.

With everything going on with the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, and just everything in general happening in the world today, me not currently using Facebook does have me really feeling disconnected in so many ways. I'm realizing that I get information from so many different posts, until I began this journey I was spending a ton of time on Facebook, and now, I really have to kind of dig for different viewpoints.

Another side effect is that so many official government agencies release information though Facebook, and the media picks it up from there, but I don't feel like I'm "in the loop" since I've gotten used to the almost instantaneous update from the various agencies I follow on Facebook. It's a good thing that I had signed up for newsletters, I've certainly been reading more of my emails lately.

One of the things I really miss right now is seeing the very different points of view on current topics. I know that I've mentioned it before but I have friends on Facebook with very differing points of views on things, I read the posts from all sides of a debate (did you know there are more than 2 sides to a story?) and from that form my own opinion.

I think that the boat analogy I used in one of my previous posts still stands.

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I haven't decided what the next blog post will be about, stay tuned.

Missed Notification Count

It's interesting, I haven't gotten one of these kinds of emails from Facebook since last Friday (3/6), since then the messages have been a bit more personal, such as "you've missed this post from so and so"

Anyway, since last Friday;

You can look at my previous blog post to see the last one, the difference in the amount of notifications is slowing, maybe that's why FB's emails have taken a more personal tone. I'll note in future blog posts how much that number might change between now and when I log back into Facebook.

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In the next blog post I'll talk more about the sense of isolation that I feel not being on Facebook.