Go ahead and say it. I'm a hypocrite. It's not something that I am proud to say in the first place, but I shall be making my return to Facebook. Not because I miss it, not because I am having withdrawals, but simply because I was blaming the wrong person for my problems with the social media giant. Everything I said in my last blog about Facebook were my honest opinions. I do believe that Facebook is used too much nowadays to just rack up friends and stalk people legally, but instead of looking at my own lack of self responsibility I blamed the site itself. I stated that Facebook caused me to become antisocial and not using the site because it forced me to become overly social. That simply isn't true. My own behavior caused this. I have no one to blame but myself. It's like saying that you cheated on your significant other because you were forced to. You weren't forced to have an affair, you CHOSE to do it for your own reasons. You chose to ignore responsibility for your actions. This is happening all over the world right now, not just with Facebook.
My friend who left Facebook stated in his letter that he is sick and tired of Facebook and how it contributed negatively in society. The problem isn't Facebook, it's the people who use it. It's like owning and using a gun. If you are trained and certified to use it responsibly, no problems will occur. Put that same gun in a curious and uneducated child's hands, and that spells disaster. In the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park, "(Genetic) power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that's found his dad's gun." Facebook doesn't contribute negatively to society, all it does is allow those "children who found their dad's gun" to have a larger platform to express their ideas and opinions on a broad scale.
Why did I decide to go back to Facebook all of a sudden? It wasn't because I was missing it per se. At first I did find myself going on the computer to check it, only to remember it wasn't there anymore. No, I want to go back to it so I can show how a responsible person SHOULD use it. It's all about BALANCE and MODERATION. Obviously checking your Facebook every two minutes is a bad thing, but you also don't want to wait an entire week before you return people's messages.
The final factor that played into my decision to come back was actually a presentation in my agricultural communications class by a man named Jim Langcuster, who works as an extension communications specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. He talked about platforms and how important social media will be to the future of journalism and agricultural communications. After his presentation, we asked him questions. I raised my hand and asked him "how would you address critics (which was really just me) who say that social media such as Facebook and Twitter actually degrades communication and takes away emphasis from personal communication?" He chuckled and said that he didn't believe that. He believes that Facebook actually DOES encourage face to face communication. After he gave his answer, multiple students in my class defended Facebook and gave specific examples of incidents where Facebook has given them a new process to communicate with people. After class, I took a look at myself and I realized something: the blame shouldn't go to Facebook, it should go to ME. I wasn't angry at social media, I was angry at myself for my behavior. And to be honest, it's a lot easier to blame a website than look at your own faults. To be honest, I have a security blanket, and sometimes instead of doing things that push myself or requires a lot of effort on my behalf, I just go hide under my security blanket. It's something I need to work on, but I realized not having a Facebook is actually leaving me worse off. If I need to push myself to be more social and meet more people, Facebook is a fantastic tool (if used responsibly). Not to mention the fact that I'm a communications major and social media is something that I will not only encounter in school, but also in my career. If I leave myself out of the loop, technology will pass me up and I will not be an adequate communicator in my career. This is not a smart business strategy.
I will gladly take the verbal bashings from people. I now understand the truth, and that empowers me. I know that if I want to use Facebook I can. I shouldn't punish myself because I'm not happy with my own behavior, I should strive to correct it. I also will be responsible for myself on the web and off. If more people followed that equation, maybe Facebook wouldn't be so bad after all.
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