Natural Grl

I was recently involved with a class project that involved planning and participating in a “World Café”. This term is not well-known, I would assume, but it is a very nice concept. Long story short, a group of people come together, divide into smaller groups, talk about a meaningful subject, then switch to different groups of people to ingest even more opinions and conversations. It may sound elementary, but the process and the results were significant. To me anyways. Companies use the concept to bring about change throughout the workplace, other people do it just to participate in a meaningful conversation, we did it because our grade depended on it.  

The point of that seemingly tangent paragraph was to introduce a conversation I participated in at said Café. We were on the subject of Facebook and social networking in general and someone in the group mentioned that the point of social networking is to connect people but it actually hinders social interaction and results in a detachment from people. Why pursue someone’s company when their entire life is instantly at your disposal on Facebook? I can keep up with all 830 of my friends from within a cold, dark room away from all life (if I so choose. I don’t, by the way).

So here is my proposal…. “No Facebook Friday”. 24 hours without knowing what everyone is doing. That’s it. If you just HAVE to know, call someone. Talk to a person. Ask them to coffee. Have a conversation. 

You may be thinking, “Now Kristina, I see you on Facebook all the time, you hypocrite!” It’s true. I love being able to keep up with friends and see what is developing in their lives BUT I cannot tell you how many times I have spent HOURS on Facebook, sifting through the News Feed, pouring over pictures of other people, jealous of their lives, not appreciating my own.

So, if you feel willed to do so, spend your Fridays with living people, writing, reading, knitting, baking, exercising, watching the Discovery Channel, playing games, anything. It doesn’t even have to be anything inherently productive, but give yourself a break from the constant stream of everyone else’s stuff and go make your own!!! :D