I first signed up for Facebook when I had no use for it. It wasn't yet The Cool Thing that it is now. I didn't really begin using it until I began realizing the isolating properties of depression and the betrayal of people that I believed to be friends.
Facebook made it easy to see that people I looked up to were interested in me. It was something I desperately needed to feel, and I thought Facebook was part of my "cure". As I started having children, I began spending more and more time interacting in that virtual world. I didn't have very much husbandly support, in part because I didn't know how to ask for it. I felt that without Facebook I would have zero adult interactions in my life and would then literally go insane.
In the short time since beginning my Facebook break, I've realized that I was right. In part. The primary adult interaction I get now is with my husband. But insanity is no further away than it was before. Okay, so I regularly couch my thoughts in imaginary Facebook statuses, and often contemplate the reaction I'd get for posting this random thought or that child's (mis)adventure . . . But, overall, I've been feeling something akin to a breath of fresh air. And, perhaps, I am more sane than usual now.
It's come to my attention that, though it was supposed to combat my loneliness and depression, Facebook actually strengthened the walls of depression that would cage me in.
I am absolutely not saying that Facebook isn't a good tool, or that it has this effect on everyone. But for me, this break from the social network is a long time coming.
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