I hate Facebook


I hate Facebook.

Not the site itself but all the fun I’m missing. Last year I was devastated to read about a neighborhood party we weren’t invited to, all the pictures of people dancing and drinking, and having a really good time.

Or the vacation another friend took when I thought she was right here in Stamford, struggling through the snow like the rest of us. Or the picture showing another friend ramming into her husband in bumper cars. 

It reminds me of all the parties with the cool kids I wasn’t invited to in high school. I was quiet and mousy in those days, and didn’t smoke or drink or do anything that was even remotely cool. (It’s only now, bumping into old friends, that I’m finding out some thought I was, well, attractive.)

But that’s another column. 

I read once that people put on Facebook what they want others to think is happening in their lives.  The gourmet meals they prepare. The half-marathons they run in record time (sorry, Paul Ryan). And, of course, the straight A’s all their kids get (mine, too, but I can’t brag; he sure didn’t get it from me).

Dumb me, I post about the urinary tract infection I’m getting over, or the red light I ran when the cop was right there. 

We haven’t taken a vacation in years, so no photos there. And while I do run, I’ve never come close to a marathon, or even a half-marathon. No photos there. And meals I’ve prepared?  Believe me, you do not want to be looking at something I’ve cooked over breakfast as you skim Facebook in the morning.

I suspect what I’m feeling is jealousy.  I want to be included, too.  I also want everyone to think my life is exciting, when really, it’s just pretty average. We went out with friends for New Year’s Eve and I couldn’t wait to get home to post photos.

I guess the truth is that my life is pretty boring.  We don’t go anywhere, or do anything much worth posting. But we’re all healthy, and we love Sundays, our one day in the week together, which we spend lazing around and reading in the family room.  Not exactly the kind of thing you post on Facebook.

But you just wait.  At some point we’ll take a vacation.  And I will bore all my friends silly with my photos!

Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning writer living in Stamford. Her blog is hotmedfax.blogspot.com.

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