Peer pressure got me.
Yes, I finally clicked on the Facebook movie app put together by the social media giant to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Based on what I’ve seen in my Facebook feed, I might be the last person on the planet to join the birthday party.
Immediately, I set the privacy settings for my movie so that I think I’m the only person who can watch it. At least I think I did, but I’m never sure about this stuff. The geeks at Facebook are always way ahead of me. But if I did it correctly, you’ll just have to take my word for it: You’re not missing much.
If anything, it shows how boring and narrow my life has been. It boils down to basically two words: Beer and bicycles, which, come to think of it, really isn’t so bad. It could be worse.
But the movie also touched on a few of the things I’ve posted about my dad since his death five years ago, along with my gratitude for the opportunity I’ve been given at MCSA. So my movie wasn’t all bad.
And for some reason, I like the Bad Santa juxtaposition of the pictures near the end of my movie. but otherwise, it bored even me.
There may be a lesson in the dullness and how to cope: Embrace it.
I’ve read about studies that concluded Facebook often makes some people feel bad about themselves because their lives don’t seem as glamorous as the lives of their friends. Well, if my movie proves anything, it’s that I’m in the group of people with boring lives. I’ve never traveled to Spain or Italy, so I’ve no exotic photos from there to post. My children weren’t accepted at Harvard. I was even AWOL for all of the excitement about Breaking Bad.
But instead of measuring myself against my perhaps more-exciting Facebook friends, I prefer to think of myself as pretty average, something in which there should be no shame. It just could be that I’m being honest about the normalcy of my life instead of trying to impress anyone by making it seem more glamorous than it really is.
Call it boring if you want. I don’t have time to worry about it, because all that would do is detract from the beers and bike rides in my future. And based on my Facebook movie, I’ll probably tell you about them as they come along.
Brome Hill 