Loneliness. Do you remember that feeling? If so when was the last time you felt it?
Well today, I feel lonely. I was having a fairly average day and everything was going fine, but then something happened. I am not going to say what it was, but it upset me. Now here I am around none of my friends, or family, or actually anyone, and I can not stop obsessing over what I am upset about.
Now for the first time since I deleted facebook I truly wanted to go on it. I wanted to see familiar faces, distract myself from feeling so alone. As tempted as I was I did not reactivate my facebook, but sure enough I found myself on twitter. Here were some familiar faces, and it did make me feel less lonely. Then I realized with the constant connect of social media have we tricked ourselves into thinking we are not alone? If a friend is just a click away can we really ever feel lonely?
Well I think we can still feel lonely, but social media sure makes it easy to forget we are alone. With social media we can always rely on someone to be there. We never have to wait around to talk to someone or for someone to call. In my opinion its easy to forget how alone we truly are when you can see your friends online.
Coping with the feelings of loneliness without social media requires self reliance. I have started to realize coping with anything without Facebook requires self reliance, and confidence in yourself. I noticed after deleting Facebook how often I would go on it for last minute advice on assignments. Why could I not rely on my own knowledge to get me through it? Why did I think anyone may know better than me?
Being off Facebook has made me feel like my own person again. Up until today I enjoyed feeling like I was out in the world by myself, alone. So why was it that when I felt lonely the first place I thought to go was Facebook?
e-mail me your thoughts at: disconnect2reconnect@gmail
posted by: Courtney Wright
Wow...I know you wrote this a while ago but I had to comment. I recently deactivated my facebook, only a few days ago, and I have been shocked by the facebook "impulses" I have been getting. I hear a good song, I get the urge to share it on facebook. I have a random thought and I think to myself "oh i should update my status". It's really amazing and also freaky how obsessed our western culture is with social networking, as if it's almost become a part of who we are....like your facebook profile page is another branch of "you." We are almost dependent on social networking sites for basic functioning and socializing, and this disturbs me, which is why I deactivated my facebook. Lots of people have been mentioning it to me though, like "Where did you go??" I get the urge to say....."I'm right in front of you....talking to you!!" ....if that makes any sense >.<
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