I Am Stan!

I am on Facebook. But I don’t “do” Facebook. In fact, the only reason I joined Facebook was as a way to find my eldest after she disappeared from our world. Knowing I wouldn’t ever be accepted as her “friend” on Facebook, at least I could watch and see when she was changing her picture, and then know that she was still alive. Sounds sad, and somewhat stalkerish, but that is what I resorted to a few years ago.

Anyway, since I “joined” for that reason, I have found more and more people requesting me as their “friend”. Mostly family… and that’s only because I don’t make myself well-known on Facebook. I use my initials, not my name, and there are no photos of me there. I choose to be as invisible and as hard to find as possible, because, I just don’t want to get sucked into Facebook.

I am not against Facebook, as an ethical “thang” or anything… it’s just not my cup of tea. I have a sister who is very fond of Facebook (I love ya sis, don’t be mad at me if you ever end up reading this post) and she, uh… she “encourages” me to get on Facebook more often.

Simply put, I don’t want to. I have explained to her that Facebook is not my thing… it isn’t something I enjoy…and I really don’t have the time to put the effort into Facebook and often I get angry just thinking about Facebook. Keep in mind, that I also have a Twitter account, and don’t update that often, if at all. My sis continues to…uh…”encourage” me anyway, because it is something that she really enjoys and she wants to share that joy (and convenience of global communication) to everyone. Our one-on-one emailed conversations usually go something like this:

Me: How’s life?

Her: Did you see my pictures about {insert event here} that I posted on Facebook?

Okay, I’m sighing by now. Of course I didn’t. Have I logged ON to Facebook? No.

So I reply: “No, I didn’t.”

Her: You really should go check them out.

Or, another example:

Me: How’s life?

Her: Well, {insert brief answer about what’s going on}, but you’d know that if you’d checked my Facebook account, because I updated everyone on that two days ago.

Another sigh. I have no room for Facebook in my life. When I do find time to log in, I do enjoy seeing other peoples’ updates, but I feel no need to go out there on a daily basis (or multiple times daily) and check. And I don’t want to play Farmville or any other “ville” game out there. Facebook is just not my thing. I don’t ask that everyone else stops… I just don’t want to do it. I enjoy email. When I get a chance to write, I do. I hope that who I write to will respond, but I don’t expect it (unless I’ve asked a very important question). When I am online, I typically do the following things:

1. Visit Scrapbooking from the Inside Out and catching up with the day’s posts.

2. Visit blogs that I am following or like… and I admit that I don’t do this daily, but I do try to several times a week and get comments out there.

3. Check my main emails (2) and once or twice a month, my other emails (2).

4. Work. I often do work for my 2nd job in the evenings, such as updating their website or sending out an e-newsletter.

5. BLOGGING on my own blog. I really enjoy writing and I enjoy the comments all of you leave for me (they MAKE MY DAY)… and I am ever-so thankful that I joined Shimelle’s Blogging for Scrapbookers last November. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be blogging still.

Okay, consider that I often work until 8pm or later on a weeknight. I try to be in bed by 11pm at the latest (which doesn’t always work). So tell me, where does Facebook fit in? I get home at 8:30-ish, talk to The Hubs for a few minutes, and maybe The Boy…sometimes I break down and do the dishes, depending on how long I’ve ignored them. Each one of my furry children need attention, and they do suffer with brief pets, I must admit. I go to my bedroom, open my laptop (if it’s not a LOST) night and 1) check my email, 2) check SFTIO and respond to posts, 3) blog on my own blog, which can take time if I’m editing photos to post. So. Let’s just pretend that only takes an hour and a half to do all that. Still, now it’s 10pm. Technically, I should be in bed by then to get a full 8-hour rest before my alarm goes off in the morning. THAT never happens. So… WHEN do I have time for Facebook?? I mean, don’t get me started on the gardening/weed-pulling I put off and hardly ever do, the laundry piled up that needs to be done, or taking out time to walk/exercise, or oh! What about scrapbooking?! Or reading a book? Or… just being a couch potato (I won’t even mention the shows that have my DVR hitting 80% full at this point in time)

So… last week South Park put out an episode about Facebook. Now, as a general rule, I am not a big fan of South Park. But The Hubs was watching the repeat this weekend while I was cleaning and organizing around my scrapbook area so I was listening to it. The more I heard… the more I kept saying, “That’s ME!”

So I wanted to share this episode of South Park. I don’t mind if you don’t watch it… South Park is well known to be vulgar and offensive. I typically don’t watch it but every once in a while they come out with an episode that makes me want to scream, “Hell, yeah!” As a warning for those of you with sensitivities, the F-bomb is dropped several times (as happens in my own head when I think of Facebook) so please view at your own discretion.

And know – I am Stan!

Click the image above to go to the South Park Studios site... it should
land you on the correct episode, although you'll have to watch a short
advertisement or two.  It is the full episode, though... and oh-so funny (to me).
Enjoy!

EDIT/UPDATE:  For those of you who can't see the video due to copyright
issues (or outside of the USA), click here to read a script.
It isn't as much fun, but it gives you the story behind my post here.
I hope you can at least see this...