About face

Last year I was surprised at how much resistance and outright resentment I received for my annual “Facebook Free in February” campaign. Traditionally, these little stunts of mine had been were met with some good-natured ribbing and questions of doubt from my friends and family. But last year, some people seemed actually mad.

I couldn’t figure it out at first. I thought they’d be happy to be free of my constant self-promotions and sarcastic comments for a month. And they probably were. But there was also an almost angry undercurrent to some of their responses. I wasn’t sure what to make of it and wound up (wrongly) deciding that they must have been feeling defensive, as if I were claiming to be somehow superior to them for not “needing” facebook. 

But once March rolled around, and I had a chance to “talk” to several of them again, I realized that my silly posts and comments were serving as sort of a hub for others. I don’t know how so say this without sounding like an arrogant jerk, but apparently some people had come to rely on me to act as their ice-breaker. It seems my ridiculous status updates (commonly jokes at my own expense) and snarky comments were just enough to get the party started, and then others would pick up and take it from there.  I’m not saying there was anything so amazing or amusing about what I was saying, only that for whatever reason, it got the ball rolling, much in the same way a yawn is contagious.

And while we're only one week in, so far, this year has been a little different. For one thing, I’m no longer the only jester in the king’s court, so my absence is not leaving as much of a void. Plus, I’ve not been as active on facebook this year as in years past, so most people probably don’t even notice I’m gone.  Then there’s the whole “Timeline” thing, which has apparently pushed some people right over the edge.  But whatever the reason, I’m not picking up as much flak as last year. Except for the accusations of cheating!

This year, an unprecedented number of people have been calling me and confronting me about catching me on facebook, using this very blog as their “proof.” You see, whenever I post a new topic, I hit the share to facebook button, and a box pops up allowing me to type a message and post the link on my wall. Which I do. But I do so without ever going on facebook! Go ahead, try it for yourself if you don’t believe me. Scroll down and click on the little “f” (though you might want to pick a more interesting entry than this one!) and see what happens. 

See? You never left the page, right? So stop harassing me and just accept the fact that I am NOT on facebook.  But if I were, here's what I would have posted the past few days:

1. It's 50 degrees on February 2nd, does the groundhog even need to bother?

2. Is it wrong that I'm more entertained by the men on "New Girl" rather than my one-time crush, Zoey Deschanel?

3. Isn't it sadly ironic that people died during a protest over the people that died during the soccer riot in Egypt? 

4. I drive a Ford F-150, but that Chevy commercial was hilarious. Between the Barry Manilow song, the dog in the backseat, and the Twinkie reference, it was spot on and deserves a Clio


5. Deja Blue! Congrats to the Giants! All's Welker that ends Welker!




See you in March. Or, you know, here!