Facebook: a guest blog by Sam Gurr

It took a fair amount of coaxing from friends and family to get me on Facebook. I was already talked into MySpace, and it was like having everyone trying to get me to switch from Coke to Pepsi.

I fought it for awhile, but ultimately and begrudgingly broke down.

Immediate friends were the first connection...then many family members (some of whom I had not seen or talked to in many years). 

And over time I was able to reconnect with old friends that I hadn't seen in decades. Even friends from when I was a child.

It is an amazing thing: if it weren't for social media, many people would never have a chance to interact with the people they could care about the rest of their lives.

It's a big world, but this technology has made it smaller and more convenient.

It's a great tool (one that I still intend to use), but it's also evolving into a strange kind of monster. Many of us are disappearing into it and getting caught up in the nonsense and propaganda.

There's a growing sense of stagnancy.

It's getting harder to find something entertaining that is sincere, or someone who'll have a real conversation about what they posted. I'm spending more time scrolling past carbon copy memes and inspirational quotes and ads that are just being re-re-re posted 24/7. It sometimes makes me give up on finding someone to connect to. (Yes, I know I can connect with people in person and should be doing that more often, but I can't be all over the country/world at any given moment).

What do we think it is that's causing this change? Is society slowly becoming more shallow and trapped in their own little worlds?...or has this social media that was so amazing and helpful slowly turned into something that's changing out perception?

I won't expect the people and corporation that run this entity to help make it better.

I do hope that some people will read this and try to make Facebook more like the tool it was originally intended to be.

Ease off the obsessive posts of fake news and memes that have been re-shared millions of times by everyone you know. I'm not sahing quit that, because that's certainly a good part of it...but also tell your stories. Tell people about something that happened to you in the real life. It'll encourage others to do the same. It's something I've always tried to do, and it makes me feel like more of a part of the world I don't have the financial ability to physically interact with.

In summary, I supppose we can view this place (the world of Facebook) as an addictive fantasy/nightmare, or a technological blessing that can bring us together at the gently touch of a thumb tap.

We can make this virtual world a place that keeps us connected to life. Not a place that cuts us away from reality.

And kudos to those of you that have been keeping that part of the Facebook dream alive this whole time.

 Sam Gurr, Las Vegan, casino worker, poet and Facebook-user, last blogged for IFSF April 3, 2018, posting his "Biography."