Not Keeping Up With the Kardashians: the 5 Best Things About Deactivating My Facebook

It has been a while since I have contributed to In Our Words. I’ve been crazy busy with a large course load this semester, tutoring, volunteering, and mentoring with the Trevor Project. Needless to say, I’ve been a busy bee. Combined with the fact that I am no longer a member of the Facebook, makes it harder for me to remember that I like to do this sort of thing. I no longer see when people post things, take pictures of things, tell everyone what they ate for lunch, or talk about their bowel movements, or when people post new blogs here.

This recent/apparent “social suicide” has impacted my life in a few varying ways. Lets discuss those now shall we? Seems like a good time. (cont.)

Source: inourwordsblog.com

On the Right Track: How to Cure Emotional Blah-ness

You know that feeling when you just have way too many emotions running rampant throughout your mind and even body? That’s me right about now. I’m coining this feeling “emotional blah-ness.” There is just not an appropriate emotional marker to signify exactly what I’m feeling right now. Numerous things whizzing in my brain at all times of the day. None of them staying for too long before being ushered away by some other feeling of equal urgency.

“Am I smart enough?”

“Am I cute enough?”

“Do I look fat right now?”

“Why isn’t anyone talking to me?”

“Am I good enough?”

“Do people really like me?”

“Am I funny? Or are all my jokes just feeble attempts to make friends?”

“Am I spending too much time with books, and not enough time with people?”

“Am I doing the right thing with my life?”

“Am I just over thinking everything and need to just chill out?”

Imagine all of those things running through your head all at once. Its pretty hard to pinpoint an exact descriptive place-marker on all of that. Overwhelmed? Stressed? Anxious? Nervous? Depressed? They just don’t seem to fit whats going on. I don’t feel any of those things. I feel very much in control of my situation, but all of these emotions are bombarding me all at once leaving me in a purgatory of being: the blah-ness, if you will. (Cont.)

Source: inourwordsblog.com

How much fun can it be when you are trying to have a conversation with someone and hold their attention while they are busy doing ten different things on their phone and you are trying to interact and spend time with them? Texting, Facebooking, Instagraming, and all that jazz can look disrespectful in the company of others. I know that I have been called out for always being on my phone when I’m with certain friends, and I just thought they were giving me a hard time. But now that I think about it, it is kind of a slap in their face that I’d rather be talking to who knows how many other people on my phone, than to the 2 or 3 people I’m hanging out with in person.
Joshua Issacson, “I Love When The Three of Us Hang Out”: A Call to Put Down the Phone for a Second

Source: inourwordsblog.com

Work In Progress: How I Am Overcoming Boredom

Many days over the last few months I have been very guilty of throwing around the phrase “I’m so bored” without ever really giving any thought as to what I could be doing differently to remedy this feeling. As I take the time to sit down and hash out the implications and impressions that I give off while muttering those three little words I start to realize that there is a lot you can say about me.

Coming to terms with the persona that is being portrayed via bored Facebook updates and things of that nature is a little tough. I would understand why many people would rather not actually hang out with me if all they see me saying is how bored I am all the time and how I have nothing to do. Who wants to hang out with the guy that can’t think of anything to do but sit in front of Facebook and complain? (cont.)

Source: inourwordsblog.com

Disconnected: The Week I Was Free of the Internet

Consider this post a diary of sorts, reflecting on six days of my life that were free from the internet.

Monday, July 2

I arrived at my mothers house around 8 pm.  It was nice to see my mom again and just hang out and basically just go to bed early after a couple drinks with her boyfriend. Simple enough. Just marking the arrival back home and the start of a string of days being “disconnected.”

Sleep.

Tuesday, July 3

I believe I woke up around 9:30 Tuesday morning. The time is not important. On a normal day in Minneapolis, I would probably roll out of bed, brush my teeth, grab something to eat or drink and plop myself in front of my computer screen and see all the fantastic things that I’m sure Facebook would inform me of.

Today, there is no such luck. My computer has been taken along on my visit home, but my mom doesn’t have the internet anymore. So, instead of sitting on Facebook this morning, I decided to delve into the world of the Dark Knight and Gotham City via Batman and Psychology. For once, I woke up and almost immediately started reading. Not just reading, but intense, prolonged reading, which lasted almost 7 hours. During the first couple hours of reading I had some difficulty really focusing on what I was reading, and really comprehending the content that I was trying to absorb. Later in the day, it became a little easier, and I found myself flying through the book and finishing it before my family got home from work.

Mission accomplished. The rest of the night was spent just hanging out and spending time with my family.

Sleep.

(cont.)

Source: inourwordsblog.com

Cornfields, Stars and Books: What I Paid Attention To When I Quit the Internet

Packed in my overnight bag for my visit to my hometown for 4th of July was my goal for the week: four books. You know, those weird stacks of paper that have words on them and are held together at one side. Books, good old fashioned books. My goal was to finish at least 3 of the 4 books during my “vacation” from my life in Minneapolis. I shall refer to this trip back home as a “vacation” because in a sense I was taking a break from something that I didn’t realize had such a hold on me until it was removed from my everyday grasp.

The Internet. I had no access to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Diablo, Spotify, nothing, for a whole week. I will admit that I checked Facebook a few times on my phone which wasn’t really any better because it gets awful service at my mom’s house. (cont.)

Source: inourwordsblog.com

5 Potentially Embarassing Bands I Used to Love in High School

“Reminiscing via my iPod” is a game I like to play from time to time. However, over the years I have lost a majority of my music, as a car accident took all my CDs and an external hard drive crash took everything else. But I still try to find those oldies but goodies that remind me of high school — no matter how embarrassing they might be. With that in mind, here are the top 5 bands that I used to listen to in high school, who may or may not be cool these days. I give no fucks.

Source: inourwordsblog.com

It may seem very obvious but this seems to be one of the things that people forget to do during an argument. You need to be willing to hear what the other person has to say. You can not disregard what they are trying to convey. What good is that going to do in the grand scheme of things? You didn’t listen before? Now that same issue is going to come back in a couple weeks and you’re back in this vicious circle of arguing about the same issue over time. I’m willing to bet that if you listen to the issue the first time it will not be an issue a second time.
Joshua Issacson, Navigating Rough Waters: Rules for Fighting With Your Partner

Source: inourwordsblog.com

The thing that bothers me is that obviously the two that know that I am gay still hold these beliefs. They do not know exactly when I decided to come out, and as far as I know, they haven’t been able to tell a difference in me as a person over the past years. These two happen to be my uncles. One of them was my godfather while I was growing up (I don’t think 24-year olds have godfathers anymore right?). I used to babysit my cousin in that family for the summer during school. My other uncle I would consider myself less close to because he lives about 45 minutes away from where I grew up so we only really saw each other at family gatherings. However, my grandfather is different; I would consider myself being close to him. He has helped me out a lot in the past years, from co-signing on my student loans, to helping me buy a car and helping me out financially occasionally when I couldn’t make ends meet. Finding out that all three of them have a very old-fashioned view of what homosexuality means really rocked my world. I come from a small town, and so I know that not everyone’s mind will be open to it, but I did not really think that my family was going to be one of the guilty parties when it comes to homophobic ignorance.
Joshua Issacson, Does Respecting Your Family Mean Hiding Who You Are?

Source: inourwordsblog.com

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