FaceBook Fatigue

At the outset, it was fun. You connected with a few people, here and there. Old high school friends, acquaintances, and family members, right? You poked them, they poked you, and it was all great. You played a game here and there. Farm app after farm app, word game after word game. Then it became an obsession. Right?

You just had to stay up 'til midnight, so you'd be able to harvest that crop of strawberries, and add virtual coins to your account, because of course, you needed to upgrade your land area so that you would be able to plant more, earn more, and the cycle continued. While you were at it, of course, you were trying like crazy to beat your friends' Farkle scores.

And now? Have you forgotten your farm name? Or maybe you can't remember which farm app you used most...they all seem alike, after a while. Maybe you just got annoyed, and removed yourself from all apps. Those treasure hunt and roller coaster park requests run through your feed like water through a sieve. The coupon pages you "liked" are posting so much that you rarely see the great deals, if any. In fact, you can't keep Facebook and Twitter straight, and don't know when to like, follow, or just close the browser.

If you've ignored your account for more than an hour, you may not be in jeopardy of facebook overload...you're still addicted. However, if you've gone for hours, or even days, then you either never got truly hooked, or you, my friend, have "Facebook Fatigue"!

I saw a shared post recently, lengthy, about someone's reasons for bidding Facebook farewell. The gist of the story was that after the initial excitement of renewed connections, there was a lot of self-examination over how exciting everybody else's lives seemed to be. Glamorous trips, great dinners out at fancy spots, beautiful wardrobes, incredible kids and more.

While some struggle with the issue of comparisons, I find that it can be tough to see others' hard times on display for the world. Difficulties with family, loss of jobs and deaths in the family are among the harder things to share. We don't always have the right words. Sometimes, a post isn't the most appropriate way to communicate our compassion, and the private messaging option helps. Sometimes, you just have to ignore a rant here and there. Public conversation sometimes escalates rather than heals.

Don't you love the overwhelming supply of ads on the site? I'm a little bit blind to them, especially since I now do most of my Facebook activity on my smartphone. Nevertheless, I really don't like being bombarded with political ads from a party I'm not a part of, and I find it funny that when a family member ran for office and I'd already followed and liked his page, I would then get his ads from time to time on my computer feed. Ads are everywhere online...products, services, causes and more. I don't notice many of them.

I never got into Twitter. I'm occasionally accused of being wordy. Twitter doesn't lend well to an overly descriptive writing style. I like adjectives and adverbs a lot. Facebook gives me room to express myself! I know there are those who are able to creatively use Twitter to do so. Not me!

Which do You Prefer?

I have a small circle of friends, and some of them take periodic sabbaticals from the platform. When you find yourself overly engrossed in the lives of others and neglecting the basics at home, you can always ignore your feed. If you interact a lot, you may want to let your friends know that you are taking a break.

While there are many social media resources online today, my own tearing away from Farkle and Farmville began when I discovered online writing venues like Squidoo. I can pour energy into creating articles that will allow me to interact and earn money. Pinterest has become a huge fave, but I find that it can be as overwhelming and draining as Facebook.

( If you are interested, of course, you can sign up for Squidoo here to embark on your own online earning journey...it's a little more profitable than Farmville or Farkle!)

The merging of social media with smartphone apps tends to combine the challenges of quick responses with correct use of language. Phrases like LOL have become part of our vernacular. However, the desire to quickly communicate causes us to misspell and improvise. I'm guilty of using "UR" in place of your or you are. How do you feel about these shortcuts?

Parents may be among those most concerned about how social media like Facebook opens doors to safety problems. Privacy settings can be changed without users realizing it, making it easy to miss the exposure of personal information to the world at large. Young people have a tendency to broadcast their whereabouts and activities extensively, and they tend to do so with little discretion. It's not just young users doing this, though, and I've seen many adults broadcast their absence from home rather blatantly. Combine that with breached security settings, and it seems like an invitation for trouble.