FaceBook se fue, pues.

It's been maybe a month now that I haven't been hooked up to FaceBook. I got on it in the beginning because it afforded me a link with my eldest's adventures as he headed from his digs in Cincinnati to Portland, OR. He posted pictures along the way and gave us little tidbits about what he'd seen or how many times he got pulled over for speeding on open ground in Utah or New Mexico. Then I stuck with it 'cause I'd found a bunch of folks whom I'd known or with whom I had or did have in the past some relationship or the other. Cindy & the boys were on it. A bunch of Cindy's friends and some of my friends were on it. My former commanding officer in Puerto Rico was on it. A couple ham radio friends also had FaceBook accounts.
     It was a social network thingie, just like they say it is.
     It was also very time consuming and, due to my open nature about political, religious or whatever else views, it was a great way to go through the day arguing with folks about things that neither they nor I were willing to make concessions or reconsider as erroneous.
     So I got tired of the fights.
     After the shootings in Arizona last month, I made a comment about gun control that I figured most folks would at least give me some hedge for and leave me alone. I expected at least to see folks I know admitting that the access to firearms by anyone at all was source number one of the problem & cause of the shootings.
     What I got in return was the usual NRA-inspired “liberty” and “freedom” illogicals that made me shake my head in disbelief, horror and dismay.
     After a couple days of back-and-forth diatribes, interjected bits of logic from my kids, which interjections were summarily refused, I went up to the menu item to turn off my FaceBook account.
     If you've done this, you know how it works: FaceBook wants to know why you're leaving.
     I'm leaving, I thought, because I'm wasting time & I'm getting sick of the idiocy of some folks political viewpoints, even if the people presenting them are, to all other indicators, just folks like you and me.
     I left, I thought, because I didn't want to waste my time or anyone else's trying to change the world digitally over huge distances & all that other computer culture stuff.
     Of course, the minute I disappeared from the “friends” list of many of these folks, I was beset with emails & a couple phone calls asking me what it was that had caused me to “defriend” them.
     Simple put, I hadn't defriended anyone. I'd gone off the FaceBook world and, unless the putative Messiah of creation suddenly showed up and told me it was going to fix everything in the world, including the superstition that makes Messiahs exist, I was off for good.
     A week went by and I heard less about my not being there.
     Two weeks went by, I heard from ham radio friends that they'd noticed my disappearance.
     Three weeks went by and, yes, I have to admit it would have been nice to share my adventures building an antenna tuner via FaceBook's picture publishing thingie. But I didn't and time passed without much further turmoil
     The turmoil, I can tell you right here, I have not missed one bit.
     Of course, I've seen stuff other family members have posted, pictures and news and whatnot via Cindy's account. She says something and shows me screens. I look, I see and that's that. Not one bit of turmoil. No arguments about insurrectionist bullshit. No blather about who wouldn't have been killed if a bunch of folks had been armed. How the West was won. How the Mexicans are causing trouble.
     No turmoil. No arguments. No news. No big deal.
     It's been a month at least now and I have to say that I haven't missed it a bit. Instead of keeping the world aware of whatever minor point of existence had intrigued me personally and with total narcissistic attention, I've cleaned up the office (again) after finishing a rebuild of the entire ham radio antenna steering system, taken the time to fix a couple really nice Turkish recipe dinners and sat down and read a book about gun control & insurrectionism and another book about the history of the Latin language. Among other things.
     At this point I seriously suspect that I won't be back on FaceBook again. The only things that would drag me back would be something where my communication with the world would be necessary for what are more mundane reasons than having my own Twitter posse. Like going out to Arizona with a bunch of data collecting doodads to find the places where Dad lived as a child and maybe take pictures of the school documents that are hiding out there in some historical society vault. And in fact, should I end up doing that trip, I don't really think I need FaceBook to track myself. I've cell phones and email and that should be good enough. Pictures? I'll post 'em in emails.
     Other 'n that, there ain't much of a draw for me any more. It's quiet and peaceful and reasonable to just be with the folks I am actually, physically with. FaceBook may sound like fun to some. Cindy's on there every night catching up on what the eldest and his lady friend are doing. Cid can track the youngest's travails in New Jersey and the rest of the family can drop in for a couple photo shows. Fine and dandy.
     Me? I don't need the trouble and waste of time. Or as Dad used to say with a wave of his hand, as if fanning away ghosts, “Chingado. Así sea.”