The thing that brings me “out of the now” and away from attentiveness most often to my Smith & Mandy is looking on Facebook. When I am overly concerned about seeing that people have validated me on Facebook, or even just relying on it as a first stop for entertainment, I am not looking as much as I need to on the inside and within my immediate family and not practicing slow entertainment enough. It’s compulsive and harms my emotions when I do that.
I am liking the Buddhist idea of “barring the door”–effectively making it very difficult to practice an unhealthy compulsion. I’m reminded of a cartoon from Heavy Metal Magazine in the 70s about a werewolf. The werewolf had his lady friend lock him in a room so that he couldn’t get out and harm anyone.
I refuse to condemn Facebook, but I do note that the use of it is like the use of alcohol. A little bit is OK, maybe even daily, but overuse not so healthy.
One can be very very creative on Facebook, and that is good. But if one is a “Facebook alcoholic,” the creativity tends to tangle, ensnare, leaving one feel a bit sour, a bit off, feeling like one has done something wrong.
Extending the alcohol metaphor some more, perhaps I can have one or two “drinks” a day, sipping the drinks a bit slowly, even, but if I do cocktail hour for more than a half hour, that’s a bit too much for me, at least.
I do make exceptions for the social media work and volunteer work I do… if I am on Facebook to promote this stuff, I generally feel healthy about it.
So, how do I bar the door, or do I? Is one drink a day OK? Two? Do I just drop in, post & go, or is that like dining & dashing?