Making changes

I have made quite a few changes to my online life. 

I don't do Forums anymore.  Okay, I lie, I sometimes go onto the local forum for parents / families of kids with cancer.  I'm not very active on it, but if there was a particular topic I felt I could add something to then I might respond.  I also have a few good friends / contacts on there from the time we walked the leukemia journey.  So I do visit this forum at times, but no other forums. 

Twitter is something I tried before, but I really and truly don't see the point in sharing with the online world every thing about me and where I might be and what I might be doing every 5 minutes in 140 characters or less. Some thrive on it, but I find it odd that somebody would write something like "just had lunch at XYZ - how amazing"  "At ABC getting my hair done"  "my kid just said poop in the middle of the XXX store - I'm so embarrassed"  And so I can't remember when last I accessed my Twitter account.  Sure, at some point I'll have to do it for our business, but then it will have a business focus.

Facebook.  Ahhh, Facebook.  Facebook was something I was incredibly reluctant to even start using, but then slowly but surely got dragged into this world.  And for a while it was a very valuable thing in my life.  It connected me to others during a time when we were so isolated and cut off from the world.  It put us in touch with others going through the same journey as we were walking.  So it wasn't all bad.  But lately I have noticed more and more how some people simply use Facebook to spread their negativity.  Or their hatred for others.  Or their political agendas.  Or even their attempt to spite others.  I've even had a "friend" actually replying to a status update I wrote and in no uncertain terms telling me off.  I simply wrote that it felt like summer was close to coming to an end.  So I got told off virtually within 2 minutes of putting up this status update.  This particular person felt very strongly that I was completely and utterly wrong and that even though technically summer was going to be over in less than a month, she simply didn't look at things that way and that as far as she was concerned summer was definitely NOT nearly over.  Sigh!  Really?  It was an innocent remark.  It didn't even ask for a response.  It certainly wasn't asking to start a debate over who was right and who was wrong.  But whatever.  So yes, I started getting really really irritated with Facebook.  So now I have completely stopped using it.  I have simply not been back.  The profile is still there, but I have no real interest to spend any time on it at the moment. I might change my mind at some point, but for now, this is good!

Blogging will always be something I enjoy even if I don't do it all that often.  And I enjoy reading other blogs.  There are a few cancer blogs I still follow and I love blogs that just deals with life.  Or topics that are so incredibly funny that when you try to read it to your husband you laugh so much he just looks at you like there is something seriously wrong with you.  Blogs that just deals with interesting things people get up to.  I don't like blogs that constantly deal with negativity.  I'm not talking about blogs where people are truly dealing with challenges like cancer or another illness or even something as traumatic as a divorce.  I'm talking about people who simply complain for the sake of complaining.  They seem to have a comfortable life.  They are not dealing with any major illnesses or other traumatic experiences, they have a good job, domestic help at home, they enjoy a range of luxuries, but despite all these things for them life is never good.  Life always suck.  They hate their life.  They simply can never see anything positive.  I don't deny the fact that they might not cope with living life, but I find it so draining to constantly be exposed to that.  So I choose to rather distance myself from that.  And it annoys me when every single topic is about comments.  Or the lack of comments.  Or how badly they want to have comments.  Sure comments are nice, but does it really matter when there are times when people don't comment?  When I look at my statcounter I can see people visited.  I can see they stopped by.  And that is the nice thing.  And after all, blogging for me is very much also a place to share snippets of our life journey also, so somewhere to look back one day and say "wow, just look at all the things we experienced, look at how we simply lived life".  And so yes, I have become rather selective with the blogs I enjoy following.  And I guess it just shows that we are all different.  We all have different ideas and interests and the beauty of the blogging world is that it can put you in touch with others who have similar interests and ideas.