First of all, let me say: I don't "get" Facebook.
Whew.
What a relief it is to get that off my chest.
That said, I stumbled onto "classmates.com", from "Facebook"... and found myself signing in.
The thing is, getting all caught up in hundreds of people's lives, and spending hours and hours "writing on your wall" at Facebook doesn't send me all a-quiver. Finding out where you are and what you're doing is interesting, but investing my life becoming immersed in yours is not where I'm at right now.
I like the idea of finding out what's become of the people I went to High School and graduated with. And to that end, I took the time to do the "questionnaire", and I've been thinking of the "bio" slot... but how do you sum up the past 26 years in 4000 words or less? What does that look like?
It's been making me try to remember what I was like and who I was in High School so I can evaluate how and how much I've changed- or if I've changed! How do they remember me? What did they think of me? What mark did I leave on their lives?
How vulnerable do I want to be? Do I mention this space, and risk having the people I knew a quarter century ago find me here! And what would they think if they read through the archives? It makes me wonder how I really do compare to my 18- year- old self.
And how do you even start such a thing? "Hey there! Lauralea here! What's new with you? I ended up married to a Minister, and we live in Prince Albert, SK, and we work in a Church... and we have four children, two of which have been launched on society, and the third will graduate next year. Our youngest will be with us for another 5 years. I cook, I sew, I knit, I bake, I blog... I've taken up pottery..." And then what?!
If I figure it out, I'll let you know.
And if there are any weird comments in the near future, you'll know all my old boyfriends found me. And if they're too weird, you'll know why they get deleted!
Yeah, Facebook. I was hooked for about 2 weeks, but now it seems more like a burden than anything.
ReplyDeleteI have these people who have signed up and know me but once I acknowledge them as friends, I'm not sure what else to do about it. I figure if we want to get in touch about something specific, we will. But I have e-mail, and the phone, and my own blog, etc. It seems like a lot of work to just visit there and put stuff in every day.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm just self centered. They can visit me if they want to but I don't have time to check up on them every day just for a little catchy phrase they post about what they are doing.
That's exactly my thinking, Linea! Yup.
ReplyDelete: )
Facebook was a phase for me. It was nice to reconnect with some people but, just as when I reconnected by running into them and swapping emails, the interest in continued communication has dwindled. The exception is that now if you choose you can observe their changes without actually speaking to them. I still check my account, but I have again easily differentiated the friends from acquaintances.
ReplyDeleteIf it is true that society grows more and more reclusive, people grow increasingly lonely and everyone hangs out in front of their computers instead of with other people Facebook isn't helping.
Facebook's fun...kind of...it's like Sims, or any computer-internet thing: cool at first while you figure it out, but once you've figured it out, it's just not so cool anymore.
ReplyDeleteI just like it because if I ever needed to get in contact with anyone, it's a lot easier. Like, most of my CBC class is on there, and a lot of people I knew from High School, so like...if there were a reunion, or an important death, then you'd know really fast.
Plus, it has all their addresses and phone numbers and such, so if you ever need to mail something...a lot easier to find it.