The Inconvenience of the Relationship Status

Has anyone ever noticed how inconvenient it is to have a relationship status in big social networking sites like Facebook? Well actually the inconvenience lies, not so much in having a status per se but, in the need to update it.

Sure, I understand why people would love to broadcast that they are happily in a relationship, or that they got engaged or married even. Heck, I'll be the first to say that that's exactly what I did when Carlo and I became an item! But think about it...what if you all of a sudden things changed? And what if you want to keep it to yourself at first? Because on Facebook, or any social networking site, the moment that you publish a change in status, you can expect a barrage of comments faster than you can harvest your crops in Farmville.

Ok let's put it in more concrete terms: What if you and your partner decided to cool things off or call it quits after a significantly long time together, or worse, call off an engagement? How does one go about changing a relationship status "quietly" without the watchful eyes of gossip-mongers, without hurting family and friends, and without having to explain what happened to each and every well-meaning friend who commented?

The explanation really is the tough part. You want your press-release to be spared of agonizing details, but how does one go about that? Because really, no matter how you put it, breakups and endings are always sad, even if they were mutual.

I say owe no one an explanation. The only people that deserve an explanation are you and your significant other.

And I guess to be rhetorical and to answer my questions above, the only way to go about a "quiet" status change without the unnecessary attention would be to simply delete the account, and, as with any breakup, pick yourself up and start from scratch...with a new Facebook account. (This time try to leave the relationship field blank).

Moving On Forward

It's been so long since I last sat down in front of a computer and mulled over something to write about. For this, I blame two culprits: (1) micro-blogging and; (2) my general state of contentment.

Yes, I actually blame my being happy for not being able to come up with a decent entry for so long, but I'll get to that later. First things first, yes?

Micro-blogging has brought out the worst laze in me and has probably diminished my attention span to nothing short of super short, what with Plurk and Facebook status messages reducing what we really want to say to a hundred characters or less. Thoughts and sentences became shorter, so did attention spans, and everything became instant. Don't get me wrong, I love Plurk and Facebook. I just miss doing this: sitting in front of a computer and mulling over something to write about.

I miss writing; the whole process involved in it and the art of it. From sitting down, trying to clear your mind of unnecessary clutter to focusing on what you want to write about, and then bit by bit constructing those thoughts into words on the monitor, that's what I haven't been doing and that's what I miss. It's the focus that I lacked, as I feel the willpower has always been there, and the seeming and imagined lack of time that kept me from writing. And so, in an attempt to write/blog again, I shall regain focus and make time for my this new blog. (It sounds awkward to say "my new blog". This isn't me yet. I'm just feeling it out, as would a new owner in a new house. It'll soon become mine, but it doesn't feel like it yet.)

The second culprit in my loss of mojo is my general state of contentment. If you'd bother to look back on my super old entries back in LiveJournal, the running theme was more or less about frustration, denial, rejection, sadness, love in a negative view and all sorts of emo epiphanies.

Why does the inspiration to write strike only when I'm feeling down? I've questioned this so many times already. My writing mojo is present when I'm sad and depressed. I used to think that way, and maybe I still do, but I know that shouldn't be the case. I haven't been writing because I've been relatively happy and I've never written happy before. I don't know how and I don't know if it'll be worth it, because after all, isn't a tragedy just so much more interesting than bliss?

But since I do want to start writing again and because I am in a much happier state, I suppose this new blog will feel happier than my old 2003 blog. I don't exactly know what contents will spew forth from this pioneer entry, but I do intend to write more regularly now and to eventually call this my new home.