Logging Off.

After tonight, I'll no longer have a Facebook account. Bye-bye useless posts, news feeds, games, quizzes, photo tagging and status updates.  It's a conscience decision on my part to dispose of a little bit of connectedness; call it a rebellion if you will.

We - as in the big WE - are only becoming more and more technologically advanced.  It is inevitable, a chugging locomotive that promises more convenience for menial tasks, supposedly giving us more time to do "other" things. But that's not what's happening. The space created by some super new fancy peace of hardware, or some new program, is quickly filled in with the next greatest and newest thing.  Technology (in this case social networking via Facebook) is like water - always seeking to fill the lowest point, never leaving the possibility of a void.

This may be a narrow-minded view, but it's my view.

Just the other day, Big Red and I were talking about simplifying our lives, creating more quiet spaces.  We watch a lot of TV.  Gargantuan amounts of TV. Too much TV.  Conveniently, I blame this on my parents who were, and still are, big TV watchers.  Even when Dad was in the garage tinkering, and mom at her sewing machine - they ALWAYS had a TV on in the background.  Friday nights in our household were spent watching TV, in fact most, if not all nights, were spent in front of the TV. Saturday nights we rented movies.  Sunday was dinner with Grandpa Milt, and then back to his house to watch 60 Minutes.  Clearly, I'm a product of my environment.  Fast-forward 20-or-so years, and here I am, sitting in front of the tube every night.  Not good.

Big Red and I have acknowledged our addiction and dependence on television.  That's step one right? Admit you have a problem, no?  First course of action: no television during dinner.  We now sit at our dinning room table, and eat.  We converse and catch up on each other's day - it's awesome.  We've even talked about doing a technology fast of some kind. Total unplugedness for a week.  No laptops and no TV.  Ultimately, my goal is to get our TV watching down to just a few hours a week.  It's not going to happen overnight, but we've got to start somewhere.

The laptops are another issue...one issue at a time.  Getting rid of my Facebook account is my personal first step in "logging off."  So as of tonight, I'll say adios to 154 "friends."  What I believe will happen is this: those who care to keep in touch will, and those who won't, well, it was nice being a creeper in their lives.

I will turn my attention more to this blog where I have the space to write and flesh out ideas and pondering and, ahem, wonderings.  Let's not forget, I am a woman, in wonder, wondering about it all.