LOOSENING THE UNFRIENDING FAIRY

She’s a little bitch that fairy, kind’a like the hit lady of Facebook. However, sometimes a herd needs culling. And I’ve been on the receiving end more than a few times myself.

“Who the blazes are these people?” I’d say to myself every time I went thru my “Friends” list. I didn’t know many of them from a hole in the dirt! I’d put it off long enough, they had to go!

I know this sounds hypocritical coming from the LinkedIn whore. (That’s me!) However, LinkedIn is business site and I may actually conduct business with those connections. Facebook is a social site, except I have O interaction with all but a few. Too many strangers were taking up space. Of course anyone whose name ever appeared on my wall even once was safe, with 1 or 2 exceptions.

People I unfriend, tend to fall into 2 extremes. Either they are total strangers who completely ignore me after I accept their invitations, or they immediately ring me up for a private chat besieging me with annoying and intrusive personal questions. Young guys from foreign countries tend to fall into the latter category.

I was on the fence about some. Often, if it was someone from Vero Beach I wondered if I might have met them at one of the local business networking luncheons. If so, I’m liable to run into them again and it might prove awkward.

But then I remembered, I’ve been unfriended by several from these events. And these were people I had chatted with more than a few times, too. I was taken by surprise when I got the boot! Probably it had to do with politics. Vero Beach is a strongly religious, Tea Party town. And I’m that heathen woman who voted for Obama. (Twice!)

However, anyone is within their rights to unfriend anyone for ANY reason! In the great scheme of things unfriending is no big deal. Besides, I would rather have 2 good, close friends than 2000 faux ones.

I’ll admit I greatly enjoy Facebook. Each time I click on, I feel like a kid with a new toy. But it’s tantamount to living on a diet of cotton candy & potato chips. It’s also tremendous time suck. At my age time is quickly running out. Time is no illusion when you are growing older.

It’s remarkable how one’s perception of time changes with age. During those miserable desk years when my backside was velcroed to a chair (school & work) an hour dragged by so slowly it felt like 5 hours. -- Of course back then, I was stuck in a place I hated.

Now, I just blink and it seems the whole day is over in a flash! Time is traveling at warp speed, it’s really scary!

Often, after watching 10 minutes of a movie, I’ll reach for the remote to delete. I’m not wasting 2 hours of my life on this! I’m thinking. But I’ve wasted more hours than that on Facebook!

Another author insisted I needed to be there to promote my work. All it has done is to make me less productive. With all the time lost, I could have written and published another book. Not to mention I’d have a much cleaner house!

With determination, I’ve set out to limit my non-productive computer time. And it’s more of a challenge than I had anticipated. It’s way too easy to lose track of time online! You’re in another zone, which is wonderful if you are actually accomplishing something, not looking at videos or reading posts.

I need major Facebook cold turkey. If I can’t muster up the discipline to do that, I’m seriously thinking about deactivating. Perhaps that’s the answer, period. We’ll see.