Facebook

I have been on facebook for 2 months. I still don’t know what to think about it. I have a cousin who has been on 2 mini vacations. He goes to musicals, concerts, and amusement parks. Another cousin and his wife just got back from a Country Music Festival. When I lived in San Antonio, my roommate had a young daughter. The daughter is 17 now. She left yesterday for a trip to Australia. When some people update their status, they actually have something to say. What is interesting about, Julie “is drinking a cup of coffee and checking her email, blog and facebook,” Julie “finally finished cutting out the paper piecings for the craft we are doing today for home school,” or Julie “has to climb Mt. Washmore. Either that or go to Walmart and buy her husband clean underwear?” I really don’t think anyone cares. But, then one of my friends writes something completely ordinary and I think, “Ah. I am normal. Most of the people I know live the exact same boring, day-to-day, bill-paying, house-cleaning, child rearing life I do.” It is some how comforting to know that.

I actually feel a little twilight-zonish, in a big brother is watching kind of way, about managing my friend’s list. Nine-eight percent of the people on my friends list are relatives. They are not anxiety producing. In fact, we have used the facebook connection to plan a get together that wasn’t precipitated by a funeral. I loved that! Then, there are a few friends from high school. I don’t mind adding them either. It is kind of nice to know whatever happened to them. Oh, and I reconnected with two really good friend who I had kind of lost contact with. One I could have found easily enough. I knew her married name and where she was living. The other one though, Shari, was my best friend from Girl Scouts. We hadn’t talked to each other for over 20 years. Both of us had changed our names and have moved all over the US.  I loved, loved, loved that! But, I have recently started adding a few of the people I have met through blogging. You all are the ones who are producing a bit of anxiety. Every once in awhile, I sign on to facebook and I see your photo with the suggestion that I add you as a friend. To clarify, I do consider you all friends and I don’t really mind you all knowing that I don’t have a life. I do mind that you came up on my friend suggestion list. My only connection to you is my blog. I suspect that facebook reads my computer’s cookies. It is just freaky to know how much a site can learn about you when you log in.

While I am complaining about friends lists, I got a friend request from someone I was pretty sure I didn’t know. I didn’t want to blow off someone who I sat next to every day in Algebra III/Trig because I forgot him. So, before ignoring the request, I pulled out an old year book and looked him up. Sure enough, he wasn’t there. I don’t really want people I have known professionally reading about my personal life. It is just the way I am. Besides, I didn’t remember his name or recognize his face. Why in the world would you send a friend request to someone you have never, ever met? Is there a prize for having the biggest friends list? Do you really want to know that someone you have never met and never will meet “is making crab cakes and a spinach salad for dinner tonight?”

Still, the connecting part is great! But, it appears that there are a lot of plain folks like me who don’t really have anything to write about on their status. They play games instead. Several of my cousins and a couple of my friends from Washington are very in to Farm Town. I was invited to play. I played it. I didn’t think I got it. Oh, I got that I can send and receive gifts from other people. I got that I must forever plow, plant and harvest crops.  I see the scores on some peoples farms and know that some people spend a lot of time on this application. When Farm Town was down recently, several people updated their comment section with complaints of Farm Town withdrawal. But I didn’t get it. That is until my husband’s aunt called and invited us to the movies. My first thought was that the movie started at the exact same time my grapes ripened and I hoped they didn’t go to waste before I got home. Someone truly addicted might have skipped the movie. I just hoped.

Oh, and does anyone care what my IQ is, what dead celebrity I am most like, or what I would look like if I were a cartoon? If I weigh the good with the bad, joining facebook has been a positive experience.