Facebook Fasting

Here is a meditation that I will be giving on our next show of In Between Sundays. It started as a blog post but it ended up sounding great for a broadcast:

Recently, I wrote a few blog posts about my intention to limit my exposure to social media. I wondered, out loud and on Facebook, what would happen if I cut my friends list to 100 and really spent the time socializing with those 100 people online.

I haven’t taken any action to limit my friends on Facebook. In fact, what I thought would be a fairly outspoken response was, in fact, more of a murmur among about five friends online. I have, however, realized that at the time, I was pretty much on overload with my use of Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Ping.fm and a whole host of other services.

In fact, I think that the proliferation of services is making social websites into a commodity. It’s almost a daunting task to try to find a Twitter client these days or a decent facebook application. What was once really fun and exclusive has turned into a commodity. Unfortunately, when things like this happen, people start getting lost in the noise, much like I did. There is so much information rushing at us that it’s really hard for us to process one site, let alone a number of them. (more…)

Digital Detox Week

I’m continuing my series of posts on what I’m now finding out is called the “Digital Detox,” which is being put together by Adbusters. They even have a page up for Digital Detox Week, which happens next week. They are urging people to turn off their electronic devices and engage the physical world.

This is on top of another post that I found at YPulse, on how college students are finding out that there’s a lot more stress and anxiety that comes with being always “plugged in.” This post makes mention of the fact that there’s little to no work-life balance for college students who have smartphones:

Today’s teens and college students have no concept of a work-life balance, and while young people have never been known to keep regular schedules, in a generation that is more sleep-deprived, stressed-out, and distracted than ever, it would be much healthier if young people were able to completely chill out during their leisure time, and save their e-mails for the school week or the daytime.

This is very interesting, as I think that myself and a few other friends that I have been corresponding with are feeling the same way. As part of my thought process to get myself down to 100 friends on Facebook, I am planning on participating in Digital Detox Week to see how it goes. It’s been a while since I’ve spent some time without my phone and really done something “analog.”

For example, one of the things that I absolutely love to do is read. Most of it is done online now, because I use Google Reader to page through a good number of online articles every day. On top of that, I usually peruse the articles over at Google news and then spend some time listening to audiobooks or reading them on my iPhone.

One of the things that I started this past week was actually sitting down and spending an hour or so reading a book. It was very relaxing, and I really felt like my mind was at rest the few nights that I read before going to bed, rather than checking emails and reading some articles online. It seems to me that Digital Detox Week is a very needed thing.

Are you planning on participating? Leave your comments below.

The Facebook Diet

Yesterday, I put up a post about trimming my Facebook friends to 100 people. What I thought would cause a bit of a stir didn’t, which gives me some food for thought. How many would seriously notice if I did unlist them as a friend?

The whole thing with Facebook is that it’s gotten too busy. I don’t have time to keep statuses on what everyone is doing and it doesn’t feel like I’m being authentic with most of the people anyway. Take some time to read the following blog post, Faceless Book. Here are his two basic points:

First, people don’t edit themselves. People uploaded every picture they took, even the duplicate out of focus ones. Why? I don’t know. They don’t have to. But, there they are!

Second, the reality is that I don’t have the time to check out everyone’s picture of every event in their lives. I don’t have time to update and comment and send pokes and flair and surveys and notes and God knows whatever else I could virtually send to my fellow Facebookians.

In continuing my thoughts from yesterday, my friend Sabrina had some good suggestions. She suggested that I actually keep my friends, but add everyone else over 100 friends to another group and only give them limited access to my profile. That way, I retain everyone on the list, but only stay updated on a few people.

What I really want to do is create a list of genuine, authentic friends on facebook who I would interact with often enough for it to be worth the time for all of us. Instead of just shouting it all out, I would edit things and only put up relevant content rather than everything. I actually think that the sheer amount of stuff on Facebook has made information a surplus commodity, making it impossible for any one person to keep updated on what their friends are doing.

So, as I continue thinking about this, please keep sending me your comments. If I decide to go through with this, I’ll have to make some tough decisions on who to keep. And, as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease…

Automation and Social Networks

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few days, letting it rattle around in my brain. I’ve been thinking about whether it’s possible to make personal connections on social networks that go beyond the surface wall posts like, “Hey, how are you.” or the wall posts about some inside joke that was mentioned the day before in an actual gathering with your friends.

Here’s my basic problem that I’ve been thinking about: The vast amount of systems that a person can sign up for (twitter, facebook, linkedin, brightkite, plurk, etc…) makes it hard to keep all of your friends updated all of the time. This has led to many people automating their online presence, having Twitter update their Facebook status, linking profiles between services and other things. In fact, this has led articles such as this article, which talk about how to automate your presence on social networks.

Here’s what I see as part of the problem: We all have too many connections and friends! I have friends who have amassed more than 1,000 friends on Facebook. Honestly, how do you keep in touch with all those friends? Facebook has offered some grouping tools, such as the feed and friend statuses, but how often are you going to keep tabs on all those 1,000 friends.

I’m thinking of doing something a bit radical, and will be developing this idea as feedback comes in. I’m thinking of trimming my social network list to 100 people. Instead of following 600 people and only being moderately interested in what they are doing, what would it be like if you only followed 100 people and were extremely interested in everything that they are doing?

Facebook stalking? I don’t think so. What you’re doing is you’re creating a sense of scarcity with your attention. In order to list a new person as a friend, you’ve got to bump an existing person from the list. Is it worth it? It seems to me that small decisions like this would actually make social networks more engaging. Imagine what it would be like if you joined a social network that set a maximum of 100 friends. Now, that would be a very interesting social experiment.

Vexilla Regis

The hymn in the video, Vexilla Regis, was composed for a procession of a relic of the true cross as it as brought to the monastery of Saint-Croix in Poitiers. It is a gregorian chant that can be used on Good Friday when processing the blessed sacrament from the altar of repose into the church for the Good Friday service. Enjoy listening to this beautiful music, as we await the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Little Red Riding Hood

I was alerted to this video today by Jeff Geerling, who runs the LOLSaints website. The video below is a visual re-interpretation of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s a bit geeky, of course, but that’s why I like it.

What I’m interested in is how the visuals were produced. They are high-quality animated vectors and they look really great.

Fun for April Fool’s Day

I saw this video on the Curt Jester’s website. It’s a recording of the show “What’s my line?” when Bishop Fulton Sheen appeared on the program. Archbishop Fulton Sheen had one of the most popular shows on television in its early days, teaching the Catholic faith and getting enormous ratings. He truly was a pioneer when it came to engaging modern media.