Bad Habits Need New Resolutions.

In all the things, situations, or people that affect our lives we take the good, and the bad, with the ugly. When I sort them out, I sometimes recognize qualities in myself, and recently saw an ugly reflection in FaceBook (FB).

There is much to love about FB: Messaging contacts, sharing links or pictures, and getting social news all at once saves time, especially for a dial-up internet slave. The FB fun factor is high with some great (and some not so great) applications. Perhaps best of all, it opens a floodgate of networking options beyond personal contacts.

There is a downside: Managing an online profile can become an additional task, create an obligation to communicate regularly, or even risk offending FB friends if negligent with updates. Fun applications make profiles take longer to load, and can offset the time saving advantage. Perhaps worst of all, internet strangers include perverts, ID thieves and internet scammers.

Things got ugly in FB over Christmas: I set up the Christmas tree and planned to gift every contact on my friends list; of course, on Christmas Eve everything froze then crashed. I could have blamed the dial up connection, or the bugs in the FB application, or even virus activity on my old computer. Instead, I had to admit my own (lack of) time-management, organizational and communication skills (the ones that make me late for some appointments, or rush for deadlines) were to blame.

Feeling less than jolly, I decided changing my habits would be more effective than crying myself to sleep. As a result, my 2008 resolution is to maximize what I do well, and improve what I do badly, to avoid ugliness in personal, professional, or social practices.