Ain't Nobody Got Time for That

I have given up Facebook for about a week now. Maybe longer, I have been so happy with this decision that I haven’t even counted the days like all the other times that I deactivated.

Today, I logged in and tried to cheat. Why? Because  I miss talking to people. I thought that I could get on really quick, check the news, and maybe have a little innocent conversation with people about Jennifer Fulwiler’s new book (which I got to review and will be blogging about later! I’m so excited! It’s fabulous).

Three updates in and I remembered exactly why I got off the damn thing in the first place.

There was a picture of Simon Cowell with his brand new baby. A sweet picture, especially considering that he’s not really known for being the sweet mushy kind. And of course the “baby out-of-wedlock” opinions started flying.

I started to get pissed, think about the comment that I would reply with and how good it would feel to put this person in their place and there it was: the reason that I hate Facebook. This is going to be a very ironic post, because the thing is that Facebook has given us this sense of superiority and that we have to have an opinion about everything and especially that we have to speak each one of those opinions. I realize that blogging is the same in a way, hence me saying this post is ironic.

There are some differences, but to me the biggest problem with Facebook is that we don’t think before posting comments, we don’t think about who is reading those comments and what it sounds like to them. When you talk about the “problem of baby daddies” and someone who’s 19 year old son is a baby daddy, and who has two of her own baby daddies, it makes me feel like you are a self-righteous bitch. And guess what? When I see you at Mass with your head bowed and looking like such a pious little saint, I pray to God to smite you, which is even more wrong than anything you said on Facebook.  I have had so many conversations with Jesus about how I really think that He should bring back the fire and brimstone. He always reminds me what my fate would be if He was to do that, and the conversation is over.

So, one comment has put us both in this place of rash judgment and sin.

After a while in our little Facebook bubble, we start to paint all people in certain situations in life with the same broad brush. Facebook is the brush and our opinions are the paint.  I’m so guilty of doing this, of making one comment that sounds as if I think everyone who does or think X is Y. It’s so wrong, people are so much more than their one opinion about X.

It causes division in our Church.  It causes puts barriers between us and God. Both of which are the only things that the devil wants. I’ve said this a million times and it is so true. The devil doesn’t give a flying monkey if we are pro-life and go to Mass if he can get us to think that we are better than anyone, ANYONE, then he wins.  That alone blocks us off from the full effects of the Grace of God because that is rooted in pride. And pride is a wall between us and God. That is why Jesus talks so much about humility. Pride is the devil’s pet vice. It is what got him kicked out of heaven. Pride is the root of all evil. The only thing that defeats it is humility.

So freakin’ what if someone isn’t living exactly the way that the Church says they should? Are you? Am I? No. We ALL have things that we need to work on. Nobody walking this earth is perfect. For us to think that we can only applaud those who have all their crap together already is stupid. It’s rooted in the prideful thought that WE have all our crap together, and let me say this, from the comments that I’ve seen on Facebook about illegal immigration, out of wedlock pregnancies, Muslims, dancing, sex, and everything else, none of us has our crap together. Not a damn one of us.  It is ok to say “Hey, isn’t this good of so and so?” even if they don’t have it all together. We sure don’t stop people from applauding our good deeds and we aren’t perfect.

I really think that every single Catholic on Facebook needs to take some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament and ask Jesus and themselves what exactly they are doing with their time on Facebook. Are we glorifying God? Gossiping? Making rash judgements? Using it to hurt others? Using it to judge others? What exactly are you typing? Would you say that in the presence of your priest? Or even would you say half that stuff if the people you were talking about were standing in front of you?

The answer to that for me is yes, and that’s the bad part. I’m not scared to go to jail or say unkind things to people’s faces. So, Facebook is an occasion of sin for me, because I do not have enough self-control to keep quiet when I see people in person.

You wanna change the “Baby Daddy syndrome”? Get your ass off Facebook and go mentor girls in the hood, start a foundation, give poor children scholarships, whatever, just get out of your little bubble where you think that everyone has the same chance at life as you do. Because sitting there making self-righteous comments about it all day long does absolutely nothing to better the world. Not one effing thing. That is the God’s honest truth. I know, because that is the lecture He gave me when I was lamenting about how so and so deleted me and my feelings were hurt. He probably didn’t say ass, but you get the point. Although, I am pretty sure that He did.

I blog for one reason and one reason only, to tell my story so that if for some reason, someone who is in a bad place comes across it, they can see that no matter what they have done, or how far they have gone that God loves them more than they think He does. If anything gets in the way of that goal, then it has to go. That includes first and foremost: Facebook.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.