A picture says a thousand words

20% cooler & have 30% more time.

Before I quit Facebook, they require you give a reason as to why. "It was taking up too much of my time" was definitely the least intrusive of the options.  Stalkers and threats etc being the other reasons. I feel good about my graceful exit, like a tremendous weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Every time I pick up my phone and have nowhere to go to, no app to select. It is kind of strange yet strangely gratifying to have my life back. I did manage to get a coffee table book published with some of the content and tagged pictures as a back up plan.

Teenagers using Facebook said it was 30% of their lives. Adolescents growing up with todays connectivity and technology face new problems that us adults can barely rectify. It is implicit that mature people are responsible enough to make healthy decisions and yet it is still challenging.  But what about the developing mind and morals of youth? Daily activities surround the pictures they planned to take to post. It was like they were maintaining this other life. Preteen girls dress up in a highly provocative and sexualized way and post them to their online avatars. I am not sure they have an idea of the gravity of what their were doing. It may just be an innocent way to attract boys. Or a means to bolster self confidence. Or that by maintaining this status quo that invented persona will influence who one will become in 'real' life.

I have found myself in this vicious cycle. The persona people think I am is nothing like who my closest friends know me to be. One is real, the other surreal. We always aim to put our best foot forward and to portray ourselves in the best light possible. I kept an internal rule to keep everything I post positive. But we only show what we want others to see.  We are our own censorship mechanism to some degree. Maybe they don't need to be broadcast to the world. But then again is there really any privacy?
Those embarrassing pictures of drunken debauchery will continue to bite you in the ass.  Society is not forgiving. Life and technology seem to spin so quickly out of control these days.  Our decision and our mistakes are what make and help us grow as individuals. Failures and mistakes are often good. After all, we are just human.

On a lighter note. The holidays were good to me. My family has never been really close and we don't get together as often as I would like. Especially for dinner…….. my mom is an amazing chef. Family and friends are the most important to me and we are continually making efforts to constantly improve it amidst all the challenges, hardship and loss. My brother, who I really haven't seen in a decade made a real positive leap this year and sent us all a care package. He combined what he loves doing, making chain mail armour combined with a bit of online research to see what might be an appropriate gift for me.  He made made me a chain mail guitar strap for my new cigar box guitar that I got myself for my birthday. I really appreciate is his effort. To me its the best gift I could have gotten this holiday season, though it is as heavy as the guitar it is strapped too.