I gave up Facebook for Lent.

Now that Lent is over, and I can peruse Facebook again..I am processing the last 40 days of life without Facebook. Yesterday, my daughter asked me "Mama, are you happy you can get on Facebook again?" I realized I didn't have an immediate answer for her and just told her "I don't know, I'm still thinking about that. Here a few things I have decided about Facebook...(keep in mind this is my personal outlook and the result of fasting from it for 40 days, after having been an avid daily user for several years now)

1) It gives you a false sense of friendships. I have 619 "friends" on Facebook. These are family members, friends that I grew up with and friends that I have made as an adult. During that 40 day fast, I can count on less than 10 fingers the number of those "friends" that I had contact with. And to be honest, in a regular week of using Facebook, I don't have real conversations with most of those people. I actually renewed an old friendship with my friend Amy, who also gave up Facebook for Lent. Our daily contact and random texts with our "facebook thoughts" quickly turned to more personal conversations about things that we probably would never have posted on Facebook for everyone to see...which leads me to....

2) Facebook is a form of permissive voyeurism. When you add someone as your friend, you are permissively allowing them to be privy to any part of your life that you share in that forum. I know entirely too much about some people's personal woes due to the freely shared information on their pages. (This could be the same for blogging, although, you don't have as much control over who views your blog, as this is open to anyone that might google a topic you have blogged about.)

3) I can get a lot more done around my house without Facebook in my daily routine. How stupid and silly to say that I have allowed Facebook to consume so much of my daily life. But I can honestly say, I wasn't aware of it until I removed it from my daily activities. I got way more laundry and housekeeping done! I had lots more real conversations with my children because I wasn't distracted from checking everyone's posts. Really? What could anyone have to say on facebook that could possibly be more important than the conversations I could be having with my children?

I'm still processing my hiatus from Facebook, and I may come up with more revelations, but for now these are the top 3. Am I going to give up Facebook forever? Probably not. I do enjoy keeping in touch with long distance family and friends in this manner..but I do know that the last 40 days definitely made me re-evaluate my priorities, even the ones that I didn't realize I was making priorities. I know who my real live friends are that I can contact for the good and bad in my life. And my laundry pile is considerably smaller now than before Lent. I don't feel the need at this point to fill my mind with other people's random thoughts on a regular basis, and am kind of embarrassed that I didn't realize that was what Facebook was to me...a way to fill the silence. There are many things that the Lord dealt with me during this time, and I know it's because I finally gave Him the time to consume my thoughts instead of pushing Him to the side. I don't want to give that up and go back to replacing Him. I will have Facebook...but it will continue to be in a limited forum. And if I feel myself getting back into that rut, I will fast again.
This is the first time I have fasted from anything for that amount of time, I'm wondering what else in my life I could fast from and find God patiently waiting for me?