I am not afraid to admit that I have a problem. I have an
addiction to Facebook to the point that I have become a self proclaimed
Facebook stalker. Now, I know that many of you might be shaking your head at me
right now, and are appalled that I would even state such things online, but let’s
admit it—if you saw something “interesting” pop up on your news feed it would
take all the powers of the Earth and heaven combined to stay your hand from
instantly going to stalk out the situation on your friend’s page.
Because, that is what nuns do. No need to be ashamed.
We like to gossip, but we don’t like to label our interest
in the affairs of other people with such negative terms as ‘gossiping, but remaining informed. Perhaps the most exciting status update to “remain informed
about,” once it pops up in the news feed is that of the “relationship status.”
It is invigorating to be in the know on who’s relationship is proclaimed as “complicated,”
as you cheer for those who are listed as being “in a relationship,” and you mourn
with those who “went from being in a relationship to single.”
It is this last group of people however, who create an at
times uncomfortable and even unpredictable misuse of the Facebook status. Now,
I am not saying that it is inappropriate to list that you are now single on
Facebook, but there comes a point where the information posted no longer
becomes Facebook status worthy, but is better suited for a journal that will be
under strict lock and key to be potentially thrown in the ocean never to be
read by a human soul until it washes up on the beach a hundred to a thousand
years after your death. It is fine to mourn a lost relationship, but there is a
point where it gets to be too much.
As a constant Facebook stalker, my attention to your posts
takes away from the other duties that I have my other friends, but what pulls
me in is the fact that your posts are just so angsty, dramatic, and over the
top that I can’t help but look. Your proclamations that “you will be stronger
without him” and his attempts, along with others to console or even chastise your
dramatic nature are even better than watching an episode of the Bachelorette. I am hooked for hours, and
cannot look away.
The main thing that bugs me with this is not so much the
expressions of emotions, but the medium of it. My understanding of
relationships is that the intricacies of them should be between you and him and
no one else. This is when a relationship is authentic, and when you show your
maturity in recognizing that real relationships that at times are “dramatic” do
not have to be so dramatic in a public forum like Facebook! Write it out in a
journal rather than using Facebook as one. Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better
when your inbox and wall aren’t full of 50 messages asking you what happened—“you
were so perfect for him! He is a fool!”
<3 The Nunnery
<3 The Nunnery
