Social Networking and the Destruction of Quality

I have re opened my facebook account. I never fully shut it down to begin with, but hid everything and kept less than ten people on it because I was a bridesmaid in a wedding and trying to plan my own wedding. Before I deleted everyone and hid all my information, I gave a month of reminders and notification. I put my cell phone number up, I put my private email address up, I put my places of employment out for people to know, and I linked this blog every day letting people know different ways for them to keep in contact with me. In May, when I finally shut it down, the only two people who actually took the time to keep in contact with me were my Nana and my Aunt. Yup. So much for friends right?

Let me say that I think social networking can be awesome. It has the potential to be used for great good but it has also led to the destruction of quality. Social change groups and activist groups use it as a cheap or free way to get their cause known. As a result, I have actually had to notify some of these groups that I support in other ways that they are spamming me. Some are worse than others. They allow public posting, but do not monitor it. I recieved a lot of flack from people for shutting down my facebook. People I consider friends were unable to find a minute to even text me over the three months. In some cases, they even told other friends and family they were insulted that I did not have them on my facebook anymore. They felt targeted.

I look for quality in my relationships. I am really sorry if you felt that the only way you achieved quality in our relationship was through facebook. I do have one piece of advice to many of my so-called friends: grow up and give it up! When I text you or call you or message you over and over again asking to hang out and there is always an excuse? Guess what? I'm going to stop doing that. If I ask you to come over for lunch or dinner, or to go out, or to go see a movie or come over and watch a movie and you tell me you're not interested in that, show disinterest in setting a time or date to do that, I'm not going to text, email, call or message you to do those things with me! And if you have a problem with that, CALL ME or TEXT ME or SHOW UP TO MY WORK TO CHECK IT OUT or SHOW UP TO MY HOUSE! Do NOT talk to my sister, my other friends, my family or my fiance because it is none of their business. I'm VERY open with my information because I want to figure out who actually gives a damn about me and will take that extra ten seconds that it takes now to contact me. I'm really sorry if this makes me high maintenence, but I'm really tired of being the only one putting effort into my relationships.