I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.
Now that I am at least a thousand miles away from most of the people I know, it seems like a great way to keep in touch. I love the connection it helps me to feel and the easily organized way to categorize photos and “share” them with those I love. But you want to know what I hate? I check it daily. Sometimes I’m on it as soon as I wake up and right before I go to bed. It has me in shackles, armed with all of my personal information to boot.
Due to a variety of reasons, I toy with the idea of giving it up or at least going on a long hiatus. I haven’t been able to take on such drastic measures yet. Instead, I have periodically been deleting old acquaintances and removing more personal data. The messages with friends and collection of photos keep me there. In chains. Wasting my time.
Regardless of how I decide to proceed, I’d like to think that by the time my hypothetical-and-distant-future-children are around, I won’t be showing them my Facebook page as a way to reflect on the past. “Look! This is when your daddy first commented on my wall!” Not happening. I do however want to preserve some of the memories that are currently only housed (sadly) on Facebook.
Therefore, I would like to make the following pledge:
I, Samantha, vow to be better about photos. Better about taking them, but more importantly, better about organizing them. This means, printing them, framing them and/or placing them in photo albums. Not the kind online, but real-live-turn-the-pages photo albums.
To start, I will print and frame some wedding photos to adorn our wall. We’ve passed the two-year mark, and I have yet to print a single picture from our lovely and symbolic day.
Following this task, I will sort and print out study abroad photos. China, Greece and a whole lot of Europe are fading fast in my little brain and I’d like to remember my days of adventuresome gallivanting. Finally, I would like to catalog year one and year two of our marriage.
Not only will this provide me with a different pastime than Facebook, but I’ll have something to show for it when it’s over. Literally.