Hey, where’d everybody go?
You can tell it’s Lent, because all of a sudden people vanish from the Face of the book, and I start to feel like it’s just me, talking to myself in a wasteland.
I get it. I understand that–especially to those for whom Facebook is primarily a place to post and read links or play games–Facebook can be a time waster and a temptation. Same goes for other social media applications or Internet forums. But for some of us, the Internet is also our main means of communication with friends and family.
“It’s good for everyone to step away from the computer and socialize,” people say.
Noooooo!
No, you don’t understand. I step toward the computer to socialize, not away from it.
Many (maybe even most) of my most long-time friends are people I first met on-line. On-line, you can take as much time as you need to come up with a response in a discussion, and the playing field is leveled since everyone with a keyboard can “speak” at the same time and at the same volume. You can take in each person one at a time, instead of being completely shut down by the too-much going on in a crowd.
And when we actually meet in person for the first time, they have some inkling of who I really am. I’m not handicapped, as I suspect I usually am, by a first impression that stamps me as a silent, sweating weirdo who prefers to wedge into a corner and smile weakly.
Writing slows things down and drops stimuli to an acceptable level. It works for me. In another time, I suspect I would have been the kind of gal who carried on long and detailed correspondence by letter.
So when everyone disappears, I feel a little like they’ve just stopped responding to my letters. Because that’s…more social somehow?
As I was working up this rant, another thought occurred to me: Lent is also meant to be a time to spend time alone in the desert. You and God. Reflecting. Praying. Taking stock.
I’m not giving up social media for Lent. But it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little less time feeling lonely and a little more time being alone.
Enough Ice Cream 
Oh, me too! Especially since I can’t get out of the house much, and I am _really_ not a phone person, Facebook is so important to me. It makes me feel less isolate, and really keep in touch better, with photos and everything. But I like your point about being alone. My therapist recently recommended to me that I take some of my scattered minutes of free time and just sit and “be present”–observe what my different senses are experiencing, without judgement. It really calms my mind down and keeps me from rushing off to some project or distraction–or Facebook–every time I have a spare minute. I guess it would be better to be praying or meditating, but I think this is a necessary first step for me so I can learn how to quiet my mind!
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Sometimes just taking the time to think without being bombarded by input is about all I can manage. That’s one reason I like walking outside or sitting quietly in the adoration chapel without a book in hand sometimes: it gives me mental quiet time to do some untangling. And if I get past that enough to reflect, so much the better.
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