And I gave up candy for Lent in the springtime... mama was proud, and so were the nuns.

I'm not Catholic. I am not really adherant to any particular organized religion, but I do believe in taking what works from many different tenets, social mores, and organized belief systems if they benefit me in some way, even if I may not agree with, or know the whole of them. I don't really see anything wrong with that, since black and white; in my mind, anyway, belongs on paper, or maybe in paint colours or clothing, but should end there. I'm not big on rules, and I'm not big on absolutes.

That said, I have decided to give up Facebook for Lent. It has become a very easy distraction for me, and since my list'o'friends keeps climbing in number, it can take me a very long time to catch up with everyone. I also have noticed that I will scroll through the many status updates, links, photos, and notes, and I find myself developing tunnel vision that takes a while to go away. I get this mental fog that can be really annoying, and before I know it, almost an hour has passed, and there are days when I don't feel much more than fogged out.

And really, if one of my good friends has something major happen in their lives, I'm sure he or she will let me know. I don't really need social networking software to keep up with the people I see on a regular basis... and the ones who I don't see on a regular basis are usually friends of friends or family, and I would probably find out anyway.

So... bye-bye, overstimulating timesuck.

That's not to say I don't have a good time on there, but I wonder how many others feel the same way about it?

The other problem I have with it, is that it really does seem to be a vehicle placed to make people lazy in their friendships. People are less likely to meet up with one another, when they can just chat online. I personally can't stand to do only that much with my friends. I enjoy being out and about, seeing people face to face, joking, laughing, actually hearing the other person's voice, etc. It's just not the same. I would personally much rather do one thing with just a couple people each day than... well... nothing but sit online with the 236 people I have on my list'o'friends. I really don't know how some people do that all the time, because I start to go kinda batty after spending too long on there, which usually consists of part of a morning.

I also have my work cut out for me in the near future. I have lots of things that need to happen before the current school year ends, so I will be concentrating on that, as well as working on a few creative projects, reading more books, and just enjoying not being bombarded with so much information about so many people each day.

For instance, I started "War and Peace", and set it down about a month ago. I would like to actually finish that. "Anna Karenina" was an amazing book, and I have a good feeling about this one as well. I just need to compartmentalize the things that are important to me in life and focus better. And when I'm overstimulated and sucked into something that doesn't really make that much of a difference in my daily life as a whole, I have to prioritize and remove the erroneous.

I will probably venture back over there at some point, but I will say this has been a long time coming, and something I have to do for now.

If you are visiting from over there, and want to keep in touch, you can shoot me an email at hedrowilsonATgmailDAHTcawm.

-H