Greetings friends! I am happy to report that it has been nine days since I last checked Facebook. Nine days! The last time I went nine days without using the social network was in 2011 when Bethany and I were in China adopting Tiana. Facebook is banned there, not because the site is a massive time-suck and promoter of fake news, but because it is a platform for free speech--which communists aren't too wild about.
My reason for banning myself from Facebook is to preserve my faith in my fellow man. I refuse to be bombarded with lies, half-truths, and negative comments about politics and people any longer. Nowadays, when I talk to a friend, I have no idea whether he or she has recently posted some hateful nonsense online or not. And, as they say, ignorance is bliss.
Since taking this break from Facebook, I have rediscovered the creativity that has been lying mostly dormant within me. In the last nine days I have gathered materials for building 10 new homemade musical instruments. I've begun building a three-string cigar box guitar with some improvements over my previous models. I have also managed to read Stephen King's "Misery" and have started reading Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." In the last nine days I've also written a newspaper column and a updated my blog a couple times. Somehow I also found time to sub at the primary school three times and attend a board meeting for the non-profit foundation I volunteer for. Oh, and I've spent some quality time, in person, with friends and family--without hearing a single insult or personal attack related to politics.
I'm starting to remember how great real life is compared to that virtual reality that 3 out of 4 people on Earth are stuck "living" in. Do I miss Facebook? No I do not.
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