Shocking Surprises From a Social Experience

I have reactivated my Facebook, and it was actually more difficult than I imagined!  I thought I would be excited, and to some degree I am, but not in the “YAY, now I don’t have to continue reaching out to friends, I can just go on Facebook and not worry about actual contact” way, but instead, I am excited to RE-connect with people using an additional medium.  I am beginning to spend more face-to-face time with friends and find that I LOVE the time that I have with them, and look forward to sharing experiences with all of my friends in whatever way that I am able.  I sincerely hope that those who remain on my friend’s list will be willing to increase more personal contact, whether in person, text, email, and/or phone.

Now for my final lessons: 

A friendship, like any other relationship, requires time, energy, attention and patience.

I am responsible for the way that I interact and approach the people in my life.

It’s far more effective to make plans through text, phone or email.

Last minute plans are kind of fun.

Facebook is a great medium for keeping in touch, posting experiences and making mass messages.  (Texts can be confusing.  Email can be overlooked (especially if you have filters like I do).  Phone calls take a lot of time when you have something to tell a lot of people.)

I have far more clarity when writing posts for my blog when not constantly posting to Facebook.

I spend far less time on my computer, other than serious writing, checking email, and searching for the way to manifest my purpose.

Leaving Facebook (and all other social media) for a month revealed something very interesting about my friendships and my desire to keep people close.

Social media/networking is a powerful tool.

I made a commitment to stay off of Facebook, with the declaration that I would be back after the month was complete, and I did it.  There was speculation that I wouldn’t make it more than a couple of weeks before I reactivated my account.  This of course makes me wonder what people think about my determination, reliability, and whether or not my word means anything.

Just because I have people on my friends list doesn’t confirm a friendship, only a mutual interest in the same website.

The anticipated result of my experiment was not entirely as I had planned (which will result in an interesting post).  When I logged back in and reactivated my account I immediately found that seven people had deleted me.  Thereby changing the math from my previous blog post.

“Likes” and “Friend Requests” are confirmation that people pay attention to your posts…but doesn’t mean that people pay attention to the content of your shared experience.

I am curious if those on my list, who I have deleted, have noticed, are hurt, and/or don’t care.

Deleting someone from my list of friends does not mean that I don’t care about them, but means that I prefer another way of communicating and connecting with them.

I have not missed the political ranting on the website.

I have missed the pictures that my friends post and their captions.

I have come to realize that no one really gives a shit about what I eat for dinner or why I am shopping at the Co-op.

I have also come to realize that my findings are completely subjective and are in no way indicative of the true feelings of those on my list. 

I have decided to extend my experiment to include discussion with those both on and off of my list.  I would like to hear the reactions of my friends about their own personal experiences with social media and networking, and how they enhance their relationships outside of the virtual world.  I have also decided that I need to monitor my time on the social sites, and spend more time in person using various means of communication such as: phone, text, email, FaceTime, Skype, smoke signal, sign language, charades…you name it, I may in fact try it.

I do not expect people to agree, embrace or fully understand my motivation for my personal experiment, which is fine because my time away from social media was purely for me.  I have discovered more about myself in 31 days than I truly thought possible.  I am hoping that my self-discovery will continue and as I become more aware, I will grow a deeper appreciation for those around me.