Who Needs Facebook?

It must be March because I’m sitting here gorging myself on a buffet of college basketball.  This 2 day sabbatical from work to do nothing but watch the NCAA tournament has now become an annual tradition of mine.  I guess there was never any doubt my life would progress to this stage.  I’m reminded of the time a couple buddies showed up at my door in high school, begging me to go to a school dance.  Hmmm, eat some crappy appetizers and stand awkwardly on the fringes or stay home and watch someone like Harold “The Show” Arceneaux lead a Cinderella over a national power?  I told them no then and I’d tell you no now.  You could even be promoting the chance to meet your cute friend who really likes former Scholastic Bowl nerds that still live at home. 

I guess I’ll just always be a homebody.  It’s the NCAA tournament after all.  The opening few days are the best sports has to offer.  The tournament is absolutely bulletproof and it’s gotten even better.  No longer must we be subject to the whims of some dictatorial CBS producer.  If there’s a game we want to see, us sports guys can summon our inherent channel changing abilities to ensure we don’t miss a minute of the best action. 

I won’t bore everyone with a ton of analysis on how the tournament is going to shake out.  It’s been a wide open year.  Both my teams (Illinois and Michigan) are in the dance and I’ll be looking forward to watching them advance as far as they can.  A Sweet 16 would be a nice showing for the Illini.  Despite their sluggish finish to the season and falling to a #4 seed, I truly do believe my Wolverines have what it takes to go all the way.  The natural pessimist in me also wouldn’t be shocked if they lost in the round of 64. UPDATE: Michigan rolls past South Dakota St. to advance but their likely next round opponent (VCU) is looking awfully tough.  So I let my heart guide me somewhat and picked the Wolverines in one of my brackets over Ohio St.  I actually went with 4 Big 10 teams (also Michigan St. and Indiana) in the Final 4 in that bracket; it’s been the best conference by far this year, so why not?  I went with Duke over Kansas in my other sheet of integrity. 

Anyway, it’s been almost a month since my last submission and I really want to get back to a blog per week pace.  I think I can make that happen if I stop trying to write mini-novels with each entry.  Fortunately, my mind has been really scatterbrained lately and I’ve jotted some ideas down on a bevy of topics that don’t necessarily tie together. Let’s start by unveiling my current (and perhaps future) plans for Facebook.

I doubt many of you have noticed, but I have been largely MIA on Facebook these last few weeks. I’ve done this before and the reasoning is usually the same – it depresses me.  I’m unable to follow the same advice I’ve often given to you, my readers, in this blog.  As I scroll through everyone’s status updates and pictures that invade my ticker, I can’t help but define myself by what they have and I don’t.  You probably think that is some lame segue into another blog about women but a true follower would remember my vow to shelve that topic for a while.  While I’d be lying if women were not part of the equation, they really weren’t the driving factor this time.  People’s lives just seemed more…interesting than mine and I hated it.

Yes, I spent a lot of time on the social network posting my self-absorbed thought of the day, liking a random meme that someone linked, posting another self-absorbed thought, scanning pictures in a shared album if there was a girl that caught my eye, reviewing my “wall” for conversations long since dead to the other participants, and just for good measure, posting another self-absorbed thought with the hopes of drawing a couple likes or actual responses.  Actually, I thought I was relatively judicious with my status updates, only giving everyone the gold material.  I didn’t feel the need to share things like what I ate for dinner or how the baby I don’t have just did something cute.  When I really assessed my time spent on Facebook, I saw a lot of wasted efforts.  What was I really getting out of it?  So I made the decision to step away and thus far I haven’t really regretted it.

By the way, I’m aware of the irony of denouncing Facebook only to use it as a means to share this blog, so don’t bother pointing that out. Hey, it’s not my fault I only have 1 official follower. I’ve even enabled the ability to follow me via email (I think). That’s another reason I’ve avoided the whole Twitter thing.  The inner child in me is screaming “pay attention to me” and I’ll just sulk when you don’t.  As for Facebook, it is still a useful tool for some things.  If there is an event I need to plan like our annual Labor Day Weekend shindig (shameless plug) or a mass audience I’m trying to reach, it is much easier with the built-in capabilities of a social network.  In lieu of an email address or phone number, Facebook may also be my only means of contacting someone. 

I still endorse the site as a means for someone else to contact me.  I still try to sign in daily and check for any private messages or postings on my wall.  Basically, I’m treating the site like a glorified email account at this point.  I’ve gone through phases like this before and always regressed into my former ways.  I think this time is a little different though.  In the past, I’d fight off urges to go see “what’s happening”, but now I’m not even really tempted.  I’d like to say I’ve replaced my daily Facebook time with something useful but I’ve only got so much growth in me at a time.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to return to hour 11 of my basketball marathon.