To blog, or not to blog, that is the question. Well, that is a question.  Mine has been dormant since I finished NaNoWriMo in November and needed a place to post my "I won" gidget. Or widget, or badge, or token, or whatever. It's the only thing I won besides a certificate I printed myself and a T shirt I bought myself, so you really can't blame me.

In the meantime, there is Facebook.  How can it not be a love-hate relationship?  I know far too much about its underpinnings because of work.  It's as annoying as it possibly be. It takes data about me and makes a profit from it.  On the other hand, one can be amused, one can learn stuff, and above all one feels a certain amount of connection.  So many friends and family use it to reach out with news -- both happy and sad. So many of the same folks post pictures of their kids, and their kids' goings on that I wouldn't have a clue about if I didn't drop in on Facebook.

Its pervasiveness and its insidiousness are almost sinister. On the other hand, NaNo is a case in point for its positive uses. I got such helpful, daily, consistent support when I was writing and posting my daily word count. Who doesn't like to feel connected? I swear it's like crack.

Unfortunately, the way some people use Facebook is even more annoying than the service itself and it was this circumstance that caused me, almost as soon as I had finished NaNo, to take a Facebook vacation.  Some people do not have a clue how it works. They don't understand how to protect their own privacy, they don't understand who can see what, and they don't understand that whatever they post, even if they later take it down, is going to live for a long, long time. It is going to whiz around the world instantly.

I had previously taken the intermediate step of hiding comments from a few egregious posters. Friends (and I mean that in the unique and weird Facebook sense of the word) who constantly post were among the first to be hidden. Friends I don't know particularly well, and especially those who post constantly at great length were at the head of the line.  Next were the friends who don't seem to understand what Facebook is for, which in my opinion is socializing.  So, those using it as a platform to spout their political opinions, especially (I will be honest) when they are in stark contrast to mine or only showcase ignorance, were next to be hidden.  I can only stand a certain amount of this no matter what the persuasion is. I like to think I support good and right causes, politicians, etc., but I don't want to hear about politics all the time. I don't want to hear about current events or people's half baked reactions to them. Not on Facebook, anyhow.

And I'm not any too fond of "cute" sayings posted in graphic format, either. These seem to be the equivalent of chain letters or the kinds of amusing or joke emails that used to flood my inbox. In both cases, about one out of a hundred offerings is even mildly amusing.  Once in a while, you might see something hilarious. Is it worth the price? Also, if you vote for some underdressed young woman to win a contest at Hooters and post that fact and her picture on your Facebook page, you are a loser.

So, should I go on hiatus from Facebook again? Should I just check in to see the good stuff (family pictures being the best of the good stuff) and not post on Facebook myself? Should I go clean out my little cache of friends so that it consists only of actual friends and family plus people who post something you might actually want to read? I do have one Facebook friend who is invariably charming and witty, who protects his children's privacy assiduously, who posts only a few photos and very few quotes in graphic form but plenty of quotes from philosophers and theologians.  He is probably the single best Facebook user I know. I would hate not being his friend. I hope he doesn't think I am a loser.

I think I will have to take a look through my own posts to learn the extent to which I have committed the same annoyances I have just listed. In the meantime, I think I will use this 750 Words wheeze as a vehicle to support more blogging and less Facebook.