Leaving

Rant ahead, proceed with caution.

I feel like leaving and closing my social media account. The upcoming holidays in April and August sans wifi would be test grounds for me to do so.

My last attempt to close my Facebook account was a failure. Instead of ending it and calling it a day, some friends convinced me that the white "f" sign is not that bad. It remained a research source of information and reviews for private international schools, so I stayed on. 

Now that the research is complete, will I be able to unplug the cord, so to speak?

Family and friends are online. They watch my family grow. Denying us all of that can be daunting at first. 

So I stayed back and analysed my online behaviour. 

Ex-school mates who only say "this too shall pass" can sometimes offer the much dreaded condescending tone instead of comforting me in my distress.

Stalkers online have been dealt with, privacy settings checked daily, culling and blocking became more rampant than adding, accepting and requesting. 

Silent lurkers were added to the restricted group and subsequently blocked.

In another case, an ex-pupillage era "friend" sent me a hate message, saying that my comments have hurt her (I did not agree that rain is bad traffic causation, human error in reacting to rain is) and I was further accused of being off tangent (she had sore throat and I suggested seeing the doctor and treating herself to some hot honey lemon drink). The hate message was sent to my Whatsapp at 1 am, so eventually she had to be blocked on Whatsapp too. I figured that would be simpler and costs less than applying for a restraining order against her. 

Well, what I did do as corrective action was to stop commenting on her status, followed by an apology, and friendship was removed with subsequent blocking. Is that how friends accord each other now? I am learning. Change is constant. Keep up with the times, I tell myself. Maybe not burn bridges, I have lots of emotional growth to do. 

Instead of looking outward at others, I have been nit picking at my own relection in actions, comments and controlling/editing my words. The results were immediate. No updates, no commments and my life is so much lighter for it.

If you have great tips on how to manage your social media presence, please share!

Thank you so much for reading my rant. I hope I have not wasted your 10 minutes, and if I did, I am so sorry. Please accept my sincere apologies.

Peace!