Facebook--Love It or Hate It?

First off, let me tell you what I love about Facebook:

1)    I love that it’s let me reconnect with a TON of people that may have been lost from my life forever

2)    I love that my friends are easy to keep tabs on…you can get a pretty good idea what’s going on in their lives by visiting their Facebook pages

3)    It’s also a quick and easy way to tell people hi or happy birthday or congratulations etc

I’m glad Facebook is there. I don’t want to get rid of my Facebook account.

But.

I don’t go on Facebook very often.

First of all, my friends are all over the country, and it makes me miss them. Terribly. And wish I’d lived the sort of life where everybody didn’t end up so scattered.

Then, I get envious, which is my worst personality trait, hands down. I think what it is is that I just miss people and places and things that I had in the past so very much…it’s hard to be reminded of those things. Like living in California. Seattle. Austin. Surfing. Snowboarding. Having my brother alive. Being super young and still having so much time to make choices and figure things out. Etc.

I’m also envious of things that I want that have not been easy to get. Like kids--I’m especially envious of ex-boyfriends who got girls pregnant accidentally, which is ridiculous because that’s not an ideal situation for anyone involved (although in the end there’s so much love for those kids…)

And there’s no reason for all this envy. I have a good life. I’m going to have a baby. I’m not that old. I snowboarded like crazy last year, probably more than any of my friends--had so many epic days and I’ll snowboard again. Ugh.

Also: No one struggles on Facebook. It’s just not the medium to talk about the troubles you’re having…thus, it presents this kind of skewed view of the world where everyone’s life is shiny and perfect. My life is not shiny and perfect, and it’s hard to see everyone else looking like that. (Not that I wish any sort of misery on my friends…it’s just good to know that you’re not alone in your struggles in this world, you know?)

Bottom line: I generally feel worse after going on Facebook than before. And I’m trying not to do things that make me feel bad.

Wish there was a way to use Facebook that didn’t make me feel so very sad…

Image credit: rafeejewell