2020-02-07

Non-business Use of Facebook

I got "married" with Facebook for the first time in late August 2016 right after I got married to keep my family and close friends updated about our new married life. I had to get "divorced" from it in about six months to save shlom bayit ('domestic harmony'). Unfortunately, even this "divorce" couldn't save our marriage as one "time bomb" inside me was about to explode.

This explosion and resulting divorce have taught me a number of important lessons. One of them is that many of us are trapped in our egoic mind. Since I realized this for the first time, I've been working to raise the level of my consciousness and liberate myself from this trap. In retrospect, I also realized that Facebook as well as other social media platforms serve, not only for me but also many other users, to strengthen the ego and the illusions it shows us.

For this potential danger I was very reluctant to get "remarried" with Facebook, but I had no choice. I did get "remarried" with it in July 2018 to open a Facebook business page as one of the important online marketing tools for my new practice of Jewish life coaching. I also had to reopen my personal Facebook account to open my Facebook business page.

I was (and still am) very cautious and suspicious of the renewed non-business use of Facebook, but at the same time I also hoped (and am still hoping) to have opportunities for exchanging experiences and opinions with like-minded users of Facebook about how to raise the level of our consciousness. Unfortunately, however, it didn't take much time to realize that the non-business use of Facebook is dominated by the ego of its users - the majority of non-business posts are for instant gratifications satisfying the ego in various degrees of camouflage.

Though I post quite frequently on my personal Facebook page, my main non-business use of Facebook is to follow and read business pages of those people and organizations that have higher levels of consciousness than mine. In order to prevent the danger of my posts stemming from my ego I make all my posts open to the public, assuming that if I want to restrict them to my "friends", they must be more egoic. I'm also more and more convinced that those with a high level of consciousness generally don't use Facebook at all or seldom check it, so my above mentioned hope still remains unfulfilled.