This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for Facebook.

A snippet of my Facebook home base

My Facebook home base. (Click if you want to be friends…)

Facebook: Love it or leave it. (jk, you can’t really leave it)

I get the feeling it’s not cool to sincerely appreciate Facebook.

Like, it’s so full of false information. And it’s such a distraction. An echo chamber. Just a bunch of people talking about themselves without really listening to anyone else.

And honestly, all of the above can be true.

But since I am definitely addicted, I’m glad it has good things too.

Online connection is imperfect but it still counts as connection

No doubt, online interactions are inferior to pretty much anything IRL.

Still, when IRL is not an option, Facebook can be a balm and a boon.

A balm because, well, all those wedding photos and baby pictures and vacation selfies are in my feed for a reason.

They are evidence of hope and love and happy times (even if behind the scenes there is more to the story, which of course there almost always is).

And in a world where there is a lot of negative noise, evidence of goodness is soothing to the soul.

And Facebook is a boon because communication is everything, and while digital communication is insufficient, it can also be a catalyst.

For example, over the weekend someone found a #thankyouthursday piece I wrote last year about fictional and nonfictional racism, contacted me on Facebook, and invited me to an IRL event (listed on FB) that I consequently shared a post about (on FB), thus amplifying awareness of and possibility for in-person activism.

In other words, what happens inside an amorphous online social network can lead to authentic interactions in the outside world.

True connection can start with a comment. And that is important.

It’s not you, FB, it’s me. And I won’t give up on us.

There are times when I need a Facebook break. Maybe the noise gets too loud, or I get too insecure, or I just plain want some space.

But even in those intervals, it is never Facebook that is the problem; it is how I am reacting to what I experience there.

Really, it’s a lot like life.

And just like life, I’m sure it will keep changing.

And just like life—and all the relationships it contains—I can take the good with the bad, release what is not useful, and focus on what I want.

It does not have to be complicated. I can simply be grateful, and show up for what’s next.

Love > fear,

Christina

 

 

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