I have a very bittersweet relationship with technology, specifically facebook. Sarah recently told me, "Zach, you always fight it, you need to just embrace it" concerning the ol' FB. (She just shook her head at me when she asked what my blog was about).
I've gone back and forth with wanting it and hating it. I remember it being called thefacebook, and that I wasn't allowed to have it! If you knew me you could safely bet I wanted it more than anything at the thought of not being allowed to. Being at a community college, my school e-mail wouldn't suffice for log-in information to create an account during the early expansion of the site. Then it finally expanded enough to include the school I was at (then Cy-Fair Community College).
I got it! I loved it, I posted, I received posts, posted pictures, added friends, confirmed requests, joined "poke-attack" groups created by friends where once or twice the hundreds in the group each sent a poke to one unsuspecting mutual-friend victim. This was all fun, but I eventually became aware of the amount of time spent on this dang site. I knew I needed to delete it.
I even had a friend or two delete them as well, and we sort of had a sense of rebellion and camaraderie together, going against the grain of nearly everyone around us. I remember talking to one of them while deleting it "alright man, click it now. Did you do it?? Me too!" I absolutely loved feeling "off the map". Friendships I had become more meaningful because they weren't as easy to maintain and manage. By that I mean I had to actually call or text people, and to do that, you have to have contact information. I no longer had the luxury of just writing on a wall, or "poking" someone (which, outside of the group is a weird idea that I never did get into it, but it was an option).
Then... I found myself missing it. I'd be lying if I said facebook was not a useful tool. You find yourself in a bind and need a favor? Missing someone whose contact information you don't have? Feeling guilty for cutting off one of the resources your family and friends have for keeping in touch with you? Need to sell something that you're certain one of your 250 "friends" may be interested in? To sum it up, I realized it had its uses and I got it again.
This whole cycle repeated itself, and I found myself deleting it again. This time it was more official. I knew I was finished with that account. But paralleling that thought was the suspicion that I'd end up creating a new account as soon as I remembered its uses; new friends, new information, new pictures, and a new resolve to not get wrapped up in it.
Today, I'm back at the latter part of the cycle; I'm ready to get rid of it again because of the amount of unnecessary time spent perusing various friends profiles and finding old acquaintances. This will be my 3rd time deleting it and I won't pretend it's a permanent move, I'm sure I'll be back. But for now, I'm going to deactivate my account. The goal is to drop it for summer, with the hope that I make better use of the time provided me. I hope to get to know my wife better and spend more quality time with her. I hope to get outside more, spend quality time with friends we've made here, occasionally run on the beach, prep for Sawyer, study for the DAT, and sell my motorcycle; just to name some of the things on my mind.
As mentioned above, here's the stunning Sarah Zimmerman with child. 5 months and 1 week along. That's halfway! Grow, Sawyer, grow!
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