Day 9

I have officially passed the one-week mark, and I am happy to report that I am blissfully ignorant.  Before social media became a "thing" (as we millennials say), I neither watched the news nor read the newspaper, and I generally had no idea of what was going on the world.  It's true that ignorance is bliss-- the world is a scary place these days and I'm much calmer not being inundated with terror and tragedy at all moments of the day. 

I am able to get my news from other outlets, like the amNew York which I pick up every morning on my way to work, and through various news websites.  The news is objective (sort of), and I am able to avoid the angry diatribes and self-righteous holier-than-thou editorials which are intentionally inflammatory and provoking.  Without these angry words infiltrating my mind on a daily basis, I find myself more focused on what I'm doing, and less worried about whether or not the thousands of people who are supposedly my "friends" because we met once will agree with me or offend me. 

I'm also reading more.  I don't know if this is a direct result of spending less time on Facebook, or just a coincidence, but I have definitely started reading again.

Last night, at our staff meeting with our RAs, two of the RAs mentioned events that they held for their residents, and explained that they had advertised for these events through Facebook.  To this I responded, "I'm not on Facebook anymore."  Two of my RAs replied "we miss you."  One of them said "We know.  Stop telling us."

He's right.  I find myself at multiple points during the day explaining to others that I'm not on Facebook anymore.  I think it stems from my desire to still be clued in to what's going on; my hope that others will remember to invite me to their events and keep me updated with their lives even though it may take a little more effort.  In the case of this meeting-- I simply meant to remind my RAs that Facebook is not always the most effective tool for advertising for events. 

We have a saying in the social work world, which like most other things in the social work world, is becoming somewhat mainstream: "You don't know what you don't know."  When clients keep things from you, it's hard to know what questions to ask to elicit the information, because you're not even sure what information you're supposed to be looking for.  When it comes to the rest of the world being on Facebook, I don't know what I don't know.  I don't know what's going on or what I'm missing out on.  So, I remain, blissfully ignorant.