Why Observe Lent at All?
Why Facebook?
decenthorrible
But That’s Nothing New – Why Now?
Tagboardfictionchildrenchildren
Fine18 USC Chapter 71, Sec. 1466A – Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children
- Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment (and the more business-centric, “what it means for you” from Forbes – where the rightfully horrified reaction from the uninformed and non-consenting “test subjects” – us – is termed a “massive freak-out”)
- Facebook and Israel: What’s Not to ‘Like’? Lots, It Seems
- and numerous users’ recent experience with Facebook’s “security” measures that fall far short of making any of us feel more secure, and act more like the malware they claim to be helping users eliminate, along with the penalties they impose on users who fail to play along and agree that they have malware
Being a forum moderator is a huge and largely thankless jobmore pressing issuesfriendsme
Wait; I just find out you’re on Instagram and now you’re not? What the hey? Did you leave voluntarily or did they remove you?
Of course you have to do what you have to do, so I assume this affected your two business (aka fan) pages as well? I can’t imagine you starting those back up, if you come back.
Although I won’t be taking this kind of stand on Facebook since I block tons of stuff, many years ago I took a stand against Klout for a different reason. I didn’t like the way they said that you only gained points if you interacted with people with higher scores than you instead of “people below you”. Frankly, I found that insulting and, since I didn’t play that game in high school, I certainly wasn’t playing it as an adult either. Same goes for Kred; I’m considering them pretty much the same thing.
Well, if you do come back I’m sure I’ll know about it… somehow… lol
I’m still there. Unless they removed me. But it’s owned by Facebook – so, maybe I need to not be there till the end of Lent.
The pages are still there, but I won’t be updating them until I come back.
I just ignored that nonsense on Klout. Met some interesting folks with shared interests, got some cool perks (well, they used to do stuff like that – haven’t seen any in a while), and overall, just enjoyed what was enjoyable about it. Kred? Isn’t that just a rebranding of EAv? Whatever. I set up a page, and now can’t get into it to edit or delete the darned thing. NOT user friendly AT ALL.
I may be back, but I’ve enjoyed my first Facebook free day. Got more done.
For so many things, it’s how you use them. Like automobiles. They can and have been used to carelessly or deliberately mow down people.
FB is the only way I get out of the house. It has family, close friends, and my online support group. I have Adblocker on – I’m sure they hate me. And I never click of stuff or look for hashtags (though I probably spend too much time there when I’m too tired to make the decision to go to bed (a perennial problem)).
For Lent, giving up something is a way to make the concept of doing and thinking about more important things a little more visible to children. The idea is not to give up candy, thought there’s nothing wrong with a little self-discipline; the idea is to put the money you would normally spend on a luxury in a container which will be used to buy necessities for, say, mission children.
The ideas get perverted. Children don’t listen particularly well. And adults often forget to update their faith to the grownup version.
I’m not sure what I’m doing for Lent. I know a couple of things which would be good for me spiritually – but they are minor. Praying more is a good one – the world could use it. I’m not capable of DOING anything – that doesn’t leave the house much bit again – but, just like elderly nuns in a nursing home given their last earthly assignment, ‘pray for the community’ seems a good thing.
Secular is all fine – better than nothing. The world is secular in many places and in many ways – those magnificent cathedrals in Paris, built during the Middle Ages, have tiny congregations. It breaks my heart to know that. And to know that the terrorists could have targeted one, and THEN someone might have cared.
Anyway, enough about my Lent. Hope yours does something for you. I already started badly – my brain forgot today is Ash Wednesday.
I’m a work in progress.
I just felt like I was supporting/condoning something that I don’t, by staying. Mitch gives me basically the same argument you do – just block all the ugliness. That worked for me, for a while. I don’t know. I’ve got 40 days to think about it and wrestle with my conscience. That’s what temptation and resistance are all about, yes?
Note that I never said I was atheist. I just don’t have a faith tradition that demands observance of Lent, and I’m not terribly “religious.” That doesn’t mean I’m not spiritual. Those great cathedrals of Europe, empty or filled wall to wall, are one of the places where I can feel closest to the divine, awed by the knowledge that we humans were able to accomplish so much, motivated by the drive to honor our creator or the glory of creation or just to give thanks for being. We have accomplished the amazing – including setting foot on the moon and photographing the stars. We could be and do so much. This week on Facebook, with that understanding, was just too disappointing.
I’m going to replace that time with writing, reading, and taking better care of my health. It won’t be a loss at all, really.
Sounds like an eminently sensible thing to do.
I should, probably, too – but I’m a little to isolated, and hanging around online makes me feel a bit less so.
I block the internet with Freedom for up to five hours a day (during which I can take two naps) just so my tendency to get sidetracked is a little harder to indulge.
Today was my first good day in three weeks – I’ve almost gotten the Book 2 plot revision to the starting line.
Nice chatting with you.
Alicia
I’m so impressed with your systems and your discipline, Alicia! I work outside the home and have my husband and son right here at home with me, so there’s no isolation at all. I do have that tendency to get too tired to make the decision to sleep – boy, you put that so well! And sidetracked? Oh, yeah… all the time. So kudos on your progress with Book 2!
‘too,’ dang it. Not ‘to isolated.’ Drat those fingers.
Don’t TELL everyone, but the truth is, I don’t actually proofread, edit, or judge spelling on comments. 🙂
I hold myself to a higher standard – I don’t dare let up control. One of these days the brain is just going to say Nope! when I tell it that it’s time to function for the day.
I’m hoping that writing, and the complex system of software that I use all the time, will keep my brain actively engaged and making new connections. I don’t know if that’s true, but I know too many people who haven’t made an effort in years. They scare me.
My Dad died a couple of years ago, at 91. He was using a Kindle (letters BIG because of eye problems) and learning email to send invoices for his company. If he’d had a decent computer instead of a hand-me-down we might have made some progress. I took him a Window 7 for Dummies – and it tickled him pink.
My sisters are lovely people, and they did all the taking care of our parents (I live in the States), but no one ever had extra time, with all the other stuff that needed doing, to sit with him on the computer long enough.
HE tried; he could do quite a bit on his own. My husband and I are the scientist/computer geeks in the family, and we only saw him every year and a half or so – largely because I don’t travel well. You have to sit next to someone regularly for them to learn.
Hi Holly,
It’s a little different word “Lent”. This is the first time I have heard. Here in India, we use the word “Fasting”. Mostly this Ash ritual is done here by catholic only, I think so.
However, I enjoyed reading the article. learned some new and different things.
Thanks for sharing.
Robin, yes – it’s the same here, and one “fasts within Lent” (Lent is the 40 day period that is reflective of Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness). Here are some good articles on the subject – and while it is mostly observed by Christians, primarily by Catholics, you don’t have to be either, really, to observe the spirit of it.
http://time.com/3714056/pope-francis-lent-2015-fasting/ (I am not Catholic, but I very much like and respect Pope Francis, and think he’s doing a good job of conveying the POINT of Lent, here, and I would urge everyone to read it. It’s easier to give up meat on fast days than to do what he asks; it’s also much less important to give up meat, I think.)
In terms of Lent as a season, it’s not so different from the Zoroastrian Sadeh. See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/1/832700/- (particularly of interest, maybe, to those who’ve never heard of Sadeh or Norooz)
As I said, I’m not terribly religious. BUT – when religion serves to inspire us to be better, to do better, to think kinder thoughts and act with more compassion towards each other, I’m all for it. When it divides us and makes enemies of us, it has no place at all for me.
First of thanks for the links.
You said that it is easier to give up meat in the fasting day, you mean to say that giving up your favorite food.
even though when i was a kid use to give up for all my favorite food during the Lent.
No – I meant easier to give up meat than to give up our “indifference to others,” as Pope Francis put it. Read the article; it will make more sense, then. I was referring to that.
I think that giving up our indifference to others is both harder and more important than giving up meat or chocolate or whatever else we “give up” for Lent. I like to think of my decision to abstain from Facebook – for the reasons I described – as not being indifferent to others. It’s not an easy ethical question, but the important ones rarely are.
I wouldn’t miss FB, either, and I’d get a lot more done but, as you say, I have friends there, new and old, I only found because of FB. So I’m still there, for the nonce.
Exactly. I’m not gone for good (at least, I don’t think that I am!) but I said, “If you persist in saying this doesn’t violate community standards, I will leave,” and I don’t make idle threats.
I do wonder, come March 24, how many people will say, “What, you left? I didn’t even notice.” (Well, okay, chances are the folks who didn’t notice won’t admit it, and the folks who did will say it just to tweak my nose – you know MY friends! LOL)
Good job reporting that photo. 🙂
That message you get if your comment is too short is amusing! lol
Hahaha…you should try failing some of my other tests. (Comment too fast, use several URLs, put four words into your name field…)
You should also consider getting yourself a Gravatar, OM. (Lack of one is an automatic ticket to the Moderator’s Waiting Room. You can help yourself to the cookies there, but they’re kind of stale sometimes.)
And thank you. Unfortunately, reporting them doesn’t seem to do a lot of good, over there on Facebook. I’m really disappointed in them.
I have one, but it gets moderated lol. 😉
What do you mean? Is it NSFW or something? 🙂
I am still trying to find the blatant lies… lol. 😉
Hahahah…maybe that IS the blatant lie.
Try searching for: #storyaday
Or: pygmies (well, that’s actually a true story – about a lie)