As of June 2008, I had completely removed myself from all of the social networking sites I had spent so much of my time building and perfecting, making sure to have the most obscure yet poignant quote to suit my mood, listing all my favorite books, movies, and tv shows and updating as necessary, keeping all the photos of me to ones that were of an attractive nature and filling in never ending time wasting surveys (on myspace) just because. I thought it was time to remove myself, to quit cold turkey, because things started to get a little sketchy on my end and here's what I mean.
I have spent a lot of time and effort trying to block out most of my youth and teen years due to the fact that they were as traumatic and horrifying as anyone who claims their awkward years were from the time they were 10 to the time they were 18. I went away to college. I made new friends. I separated myself completely from the awkward, insecure, little girl I was. Developed my personality to be one of someone who is much more in control of her own life and far more secure in who she is. Rock on, me. The problem came, however, when after a few years on myspace and facebook, people from my past started to creep back in, reminding me just how awkward and insecure I used to be. I was getting friend requests from people I was never friends with, people who in fact, barely spoke to me or acknowedged my existance for oh so many years. Now, this is not a "woe is me" rant regarding how hard life was growing up, because if I've learned anything, its that my life wasn't bad at all and that most of my turmoil is in my own head, not at all based in reality.
I began accepting friend requests from anyone who went to high school with me, friends or not and through that was able to see who they were friends with, thus expanding my high school connections. I understand that that is the purpose of the social networking site, but I eventually came to the realization that I am being most honest and open hiding behind the see-through wall of faux anonymity provided by the world wide web. I didn't need people I didn't even like 10 years ago to see where I work, what my relationship status is, or where I went on vacation last summer, nevermind the pictures of me drunk with my roommates, in a bathing suit, or running around on Marathon Sunday dressed like a 70s runner and making a general ass out of myself. Add that to the ability to keep checking the pages of ex-boyfriends or old hook ups, see their pictures of new girlfriends, or that they're now engaged. Or even worse than that is the ability (and the disturbing desire to) check in on said new girlfriends, or even old girlfriends. See her pictures and compare myself to her in every way facebookingly possible. It all came to be just a little bit too stalkerish and sketchy for me to live with.
Thus came my purging of all things social networking site related and it wasn't until I was mocked and berated by my new friends from across the globe whilst traveling in Mexico that I considered opening a new facebook page. They were all posting their pictures of our adventures on their facebook pages and in order for me to access them, I had to sign back up. With that I created a new page, with far less information, that nobody could see if they weren't my friend. I started to add my real friends as well as my new traveling friends so everyone could see the pictures from my adventure. And then, it began to happen. The people I ran away from facebook to avoid began to try and creep back into my life. Friend requests came and I was baffled by how these people found me so quickly or why they could want to be my friend. I found, however, a deeper strength within myself and hit the "Ignore" button when someone I knew in elementary schools younger sister wanted to be my friend. How simple it was! And how freeing. I didn't have to worry about becoming a creepy facebook stalker again if I wasn't friends with people I didn't actually enjoy.
The other positives that I've come across are that now the majority of my extended family are members of facebook and thusly I am able to keep better touch with the members of my family I don't get to see or talk to all that often. We can bond over Lost or the President or our pets. We can keep track of each others families and see pictures of vacations, all of the exact things I was avoiding from the people I didn't like, I now look forward to seeing from the people I love! I suppose it all boils down to the fact that these social networking sites are fantastic for keeping in touch with those you actually want to keep in touch with and with the simple and easy use of the ignore button, we can all do just that without fear of becoming a sketchball stalker of those we don't particularly care about.
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