The New (to Jo) Google Reader, or, Society

Society, you're a crazy breed...

At the inspiration of DK and MH, I awoke this morning, depressed of Facebook yet again, and decided to explore Google Reader. Back when I was on Yahoo! 360 Robin talked up the wonders of exploring the internet and particularly with Google Reader (and she still talks it up to this day), and I sort of shelved the whole idea--a lot of the internet stuff is over my head. And I sort of sentenced myself to keep it that way. I filled voids with networking sites like Friendster, then Gather, then MySpace, then Facebook. I wanted to talk to people (it seemed easier than learning tools of the internet).

Be careful what you wish for.

This morning I cleaned up my Internet Explorer Favorites, getting rid of stuff that I didn't even remember from the name of the link, getting rid of stuff that I usually just type in the search field anyway, and then I looked hard at my Google buttons at the top of the screen. "Let's take away the temptations toward poor self-worth," I thought, and got rid of Facebook. I replaced the Facebook icon with the Google Reader icon, and then opened it, for the first time. I loaded blogs there, and sat there reading...released.

I read Robin, and Jenny Lancaster (she's acerbic, but she makes me laugh, dammit), and Cake Wrecks, and a guy who blogs about the San Francisco Muni J Line, and the Happiness Project, and...I decompressed. It was like walking back into the present. Facebook has some present things for me, but most of it possesses a huge stamp of my past. I have changed. Back when I was in high school I didn't know what NPR was. I didn't know who Albert Camus was. I didn't know who Billy Collins was. I didn't listen to Springsteen. I didn't know the strength of Tornado Alley or Maverick's off of Half Moon Bay. So many things have happened--I have learned so much.

I'm not abandoning the folks I am in touch with on Facebook. I'm not nursing Facebook. People who truly want to stay in touch with me will do that, and I will recipricate.

I am SO looking forward to continue to learn. I am coming back to the present. Come, join me.