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JON ZAL

Your front-row seat to my nervous breakdown

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I was going to do some writing, but then A.D.D. and Facebook and WTF were we just talking about?

December 2, 2015 4 Comments

I’ve been meaning to write something awesome … but then this porcupine ate a pumpkin:

I think we can all agree that that is some critically important shit right there, people … and, if not for Facebook, I might have missed it while squandering my time in pursuit of my greatest dreams and ambitions.

Fortunately, I have access to Facebook at all hours of the day—on my phone, my computer and my iPad … which, granted, is pretty kick-ass, but still … I’m hoping that Mark Zuckerberg soon will unveil plans to install Facebook directly onto my optic nerve so that a news-feed overlay will appear in my field of vision at all times. And when that magical day arrives, I shall never again risk missing video footage of a pumpkin-eating porcupine … or a guinea-pig tug-of-war … or a recipe for something I shall neither prepare nor eat, ever, posted by someone of whom I have absolutely no recollection, but with whom I apparently attended grade school several decades ago … or the terrifyingly ignorant/bigoted/moronic/misguided political musings of friends and/or family members whom I previously thought were at least semi-sane and semi-rational human beings … or pictures of the kids and pets. Like, all of them. In the world.

But here’s the thing: I’M DYING. I AM GOING TO DIE.

No, really; I’m serious. I mean, hopefully it’s not gonna happen any time soon, but still … you never know. Point being: I have a finite amount of hours left before the lights go out … and, given the precious and fleeting nature of those hours, and the extent to which I still have many unrealized dreams that I’m delusional enough to believe might still be attainable, you’d think that, instead of watching a porcupine eating a pumpkin, I’d be using my limited number of remaining breaths in pursuit of said dreams.

UPDATE: (And you might be asking yourself, “Update? Did I miss something? I don’t recall ever seeing this post before.” And you’re right: I wrote everything above, like, four weeks ago, but never got around to actually finishing this piece (probably because I was too busy watching some dumbfuck video on Facebook). I finally came back to it today, and I now have an UPDATE to this previously unpublished post. Basically, it’s like you’re getting two posts for the price of one! Hot damn!) About a week ago, I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone. This has given me my life back. I am free. Hello, world. So nice to see you again. In person, I mean. Instead of on Facebook.

Listen, I still check Facebook on my computer and my iPad [Another UPDATE (12.08.2015): I’ve since deleted it from my iPad as well!] … but I only do so for relatively short periods of time. The majority of the time that I used to spend giving myself a Facebook lobotomy occurred with my iPhone in hand. Like, first thing in the morning … and last thing at night … and if I had a dime for every morning I got out of bed later than I’d originally planned or went to sleep later than I should have because I was consumed with scrolling through Facebook’s ever-rising sea of superfluous bullshit, I would now have a pile of coins so impressively large that I could post a picture of it on Facebook and it would go viral and become one more thing wasting the time of millions of Facebook users whose friends post things like pictures of impressively large piles of dimes.

Christ, I’m so glad I’ve broken that cycle. And you know what? I’d strongly encourage you to do the same. Surely you have other things you’d like to accomplish. So go on … delete Facebook. You know, right after you “Like” and “Share” this post, that is.

UPDATE: I deleted my entire Facebook account in 2018. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life. You can do it, too. Instructions are available HERE.

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Comments

  1. Laurie says

    December 2, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    Twitter was the real culprit in my case. Once my favorite Twitter feed was discontinued, I found I didn’t miss it at all. Imagine that!

    However, I have watched so many Teddy videos that when the little hedgehog “talked” in The Hobbit. I recognized his voice and asked, “hey, is that Teddy?”

    Yup. Teddy has a voice over role in the hobbit. That’s some awesome porcupine right there!

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  2. Keeley says

    December 2, 2015 at 4:33 pm

    Ok, first, I looked at that video and I was all, WHAT the ACTUAL HECK?!!! Do porcupines really make those noises??!! What the what?! I had no idea.
    Secondly, note to self: never get any part of my body near porcupine incisors. He was going through that pumpkin like me through Lindor balls. Who knew porcupine jaws were so dang strong?
    And lastly – I’ve seriously been going through the same stuff myself. Deleted the app….then a few weeks ago deleted the whole dang thing. It’s been breathtakingly liberating. Sometimes my kids’ll do something fabulous and I feel a brief need to share it with the world – but it passes within seconds as I remember with relief I don’t need to post things no one wants to read anyway.
    And I’ve been blogging more….which may or may not be a good thing for the world at large considering I do not have your madly entertaining writing skillz.

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  3. Gigi says

    December 2, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    FaceBook makes me absolutely INSANE…so much so that my friend list is extremely limited (but still those “terrifyingly ignorant/bigoted/moronic/misguided political musings of friends and/or family members whom I previously thought were at least semi-sane and semi-rational human beings” seem to be rampant) and I only look at FaceBook on my tablet. I don’t look at it on my phone or the computer…

    So welcome to freedom, my friend. Technology is an awesome tool, but it can also make us slaves.

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  4. Tais S says

    December 24, 2015 at 3:59 pm

    Oh my god, you’re completely right! It was so amazing when I deleted the Facebook app some months ago, never regretted!

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Jon Zal @ The Massachusetts State House, Boston

I was born in 1970, raised just outside of Boston, and now live near Philadelphia. As a child, I thought I was going to be…
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