Facebook Confessions... get your matches, nails and shards of glass cuzz we need a HUELGA

11.4.2010
As of late I have become painfully aware of my addiction to facebook. I will shamefully admit that I have no idea how many times I check it daily, with hopes that someone, somewhere, regardless of whether I have talked to them face to face in the last ten years or even ever met them, posted something interesting or witty either on my wall or somewhere else in the space of facebook so that it lands in my newsfeed. I confess that I more than often find myself wracking my brain to find the most comment worthy status update. It cannot be normal that my brain has started to think in "status update" format.

During the three years I lived in the Dominican Republic I witnessed several huelgas (strikes). These huelgas were usually in response to some unfulfilled promise by some corrupt political figure. I don't pretend to understand politics so I won't even begin to try to explain why they were striking. Besides, I don't really remember. Anyways. Usually the entire country would go on huelga and no one would go to work. It was usually a great excuse to go to the pool. The school I worked at would probably still have held class if it weren't for the nature of these huelgas. Now, in the United States when people go on strike they make big colorful signs and shout on street corners and outside of buildings. I've noticed this is a very helpful way to bring about change. In the Dominican Republic however, they set things on fire in neighborhoods and throw sharp objects in the streets. No one can go anywhere, not necessarily because there is a huelga, but because their tires would go flat trying to get to their destination and they might run into the middle of a pile of tires that had been set ablaze by some drunkards "standing up" to injustice. This I found was also a very effective way to bring about change. You might note that I went to the pool on days like these. You're probably asking yourself how I got there. I live life on the edge ok people. I wasn't afraid of a potential flat tire. They only cost about 30 pesos to fix, which at the time was equivalent to less than 2USD.

Now, what does my facebook addiction and huelgas in the D.R. have to do with anything important? Nothing really, I was just thinking of them both at the same time. Now I am deciding to quit facebook for an undetermined amount of time. You should too. The other day my mother said to me, "Don't you think people will eventually stop using facebook?" Hopeful, I said, "I dunno, maybe." Maybe if I have a facebook huelga, then others will stop using it too, and eventually, like my mother predicted, people won't use it as much anymore and we'll start having more meaningful social interactions with people we actually know... face to face... take that book! Ok, that was dumb.