Tot Ziens Facebookiens

goo.gl/squnwG

Sitting in the shower this morning I realized that I had been sucked into the Facebook political maw. It has been months since I have actively used Twitter. Instead of engaging with incredibly diverse people with a focus on all things Education or PBL or Design Thinking (on Twitter), I am engaging with (mostly) people with very similar views and the collective is shredding the notion that our current president is anything other than an ignorant, womanizing, narcissist!

Meanwhile, sitting in the Facebook forest, hearing our berating of this person and his followers, are family and friends who either (a) voted for the guy and don't understand our problem with him or (b) just want to have friendly conversations with their other friends and family and stay away from the politics. If any of them are still following me I am both amazed that they have stuck it out and I am grateful to know that they are willing to listen to my rants.

Until about a year ago I used to tell people, "Twitter is for work and Facebook is for fun." Well, since I don't seem to have time to be on Twitter these days, when am I going to "sharpen the saw?" All I am doing is dulling my mind with impassioned screeds from others or ones I have found coming out of my keyboard right before I hit "Enter."

 

https://memegenerator.net/instance/65770937

Twitter I miss you! I haven't participated in a Twitter chat in months. I haven't shared thoughts, ideas, questions, or fun with the incredible people who are but a computer screen away. Fortunately, between my BIE National Faculty friends and my DTK12 (Design Thinking) friends who I have connected with on FB, I still get a smidgen of education related content on FB. But I crave more.

And so I will be taking a short break from my FB platform. Unfortunately, I am an incredibly terrible communicator away from social media. So I worry I won't know anything about my friends and family by stepping away. Maybe, at 59, it is time to get over my fear of the phone. I look at the phone; I, occasionally, pick up the phone and look at the numbers; But, ultimately, I come up with some excuse like "Oh it's too late/early to call. I'd hate to interrupt anything." 

 Tot ziens! I really miss living in the Netherlands. I love the Dutch. And Tot Ziens is just a simple way of saying "until we meet again." Aside from the incredibly wonderful/amusing "Let Op Drempels," Tot ziens is probably my favorite expression I brought back with me. I will be checking my FB periodically because I will miss my friends and family. Especially Andre and Jim and our "daily awesome" image or video. But, at the same time, I am friends on Twitter with both of them and I expect we will continue that over on the other platform. 

I pray that our president has a safe and meaningful presidency. I pray he doesn't hurt too many people with his actions. I pray other countries, like many of us in this country, are able to make it through the next four years so we can reestablish sensibilities at the end. And, I pray that my friends and family who are actively speaking out against the things that we are seeing and hearing can continue to be strong for the long haul.  [Sorry, I am too angry to totally leave the politics behind.]