Going off line

For a while I've been thinking about going offline because I spend a large amount of my time on Facebook posting pictures, checking in, tagging people, updating my status and reading other peoples statuses. For the past few days I have been fasting and one of the things I was chose to fast was Facebook, and in all honesty the first day was bad, but the second day was ok. When I eventually checked Facebook I realised how little I had missed. I also spend a lot of time BBBM-ing and Whatsapp-ing people, sometimes it's full conversations bust mostly it's to tell a friend something random as it happens. 

With all the time that I spend on my phone or on Facebook, I started wondering how this builds community and the answer is that it doesn't really. I may what's "going" on in  your life because of  what you post but am I really going deep with you and really connecting? No, because I don't spend real time with you talking and finding out what's going on and sharing life with you.

David posted this on Facebook  yesterday and it really got me thinking about the whole offline thing seriously again.  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83896348/

I want to spend real time with people, talking, eating, and sharing moments with them, instead of only getting a glimpse of their life through the window  of Facebook.  I want more than superficial relationships with people where we know more about them because of a social media than because we actually sat down and found out what was really going on in their lives.

I think I'm going to delete Facebook from my phone for a while and only go on when I'm at computer as the first step in building real community and removing the temptation of sitting on my phone in social setting. If this works  and it becomes some what less consuming in my life, I'll give a little more thought to going offline in the near future.

xKx