The Thing About Facebook

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I love Facebook. I check it during the day, usually on my iPhone, and update my status almost every day. Like most people, I have gotten back in touch with people I never thought I'd see again.

I"m lucky that I haven't had any unwanted people find or bother me. I keep everything private so they can't even see my profile picture. At one point I had over 300 friends. When I scrolled through them I realized I didn't talk to almost half of them. I ended up cutting about 150. I didn't like the idea of people not talking to me but looking through my photos.

I love being in close contact with family members now. I have cousins that I had no idea what was going on in their lives. Now we connect on FB and even talk on the phone, which I love.

The downside, for me, is that it's a time-sucker. I check my email and next thing I know, I've been on FB for a half-hour and haven't accomplished anything productive. Especially having it on my iPhone since it's always with me. 

Within the last two days I've been lucky enough to find two long lost friends. One I worked with years ago and I've missed her over the years. The other was my best friend 30 years ago. I've often wondered about her and wish we could somehow reconnect. Now we have and I can't wait to see both of them.

So, my question is, does Facebook go against nature? It seemed natural that you'd meet people in life and sometimes the friendship stuck and sometimes it didn't.

Comments

Jamie D. said…
It is kind of odd how we fell out of touch with certain people for whatever reason, and now we can reconnect...I've often wondered the same thing - should we? I've reconnected with one of my high school best friends on FB too, but it's pretty obvious that our lives are so very different now that there's a reason the friendship didn't "stick" after we moved on...and now it's just sort of, well, weird (for her too).

So I don't know. I've stopped looking for people I used to know though...preferring to focus on family and new friends on Facebook. That makes it more relevant to me.
March 28, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Anonymous said…
I don't know that I'm qualified to answer this question because I don't use facebook for my personal life. I use it to stay in touch with the writing community. =]
March 28, 2010 at 4:40 PM
Jody Hedlund said…
It is fun to reconnect with people we haven't seen in years. I notice that initially when I reconnect, that I "chat" with those people a litte more often, then we fall away from it. But I enjoy knowing I can talk with them again if I have time.
March 28, 2010 at 8:43 PM
Unknown said…
I've found two long-lost friends on Myspace -- I've only just gotten on Facebook. The entire concept is amazing, though!
March 28, 2010 at 10:11 PM
Rhonda said…
Interesting thought. Personally I only really communicate regularly with a few folks on FB. I enjoy reading everyone else's status updates and it's nice to know that I can drop them a message if I choose to but there's no real pressure to maintain a friendship (which would obviously fall to the wayside in the real world).
March 28, 2010 at 10:13 PM
Sherrie Petersen said…
I'm a recovering Facebook addict. Yes, I loved connecting with people I hadn't talked to in years, but the time suck factor was HUGE. And I've encountered the same awkwardness with certain people friending me when I wasn't even sure who they were but not wanting to offend...Now I only pop in once in a while.
March 29, 2010 at 12:47 PM
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