Sometime last year I ventured onto Facebook. It took my friends quite awhile to convince me that this was a good idea. I’m still not 100% convinced that I made the right decision, but now that I’m addicted I guess I’m stuck.
If you aren’t familiar with Facebook, let me try to explain it. Essentially, it’s a social networking opportunity via the internet. Anytime you want to tell your friends about a great sale going on, share a recipe, talk about the weather, or show the latest pictures of your Great Aunt Harriet’s birthday, you can do so on Facebook.
You have choices, too. You can allow your Facebook page to be open to the public, open to your friends and their friends, or open only to your friends. I’m paranoid, so I have my settings as private as possible. The first thing I learned once I joined was that I have even more friends than I knew about. For instance, a teenage boy at church requested my friendship, as did a few others that I’m fairly certain wouldn’t even come to my funeral were I to die tomorrow. But, why not? I don’t want to be rude and not accept their friendship. It felt, for awhile, that some people on Facebook were “collecting” friends the same way my kids collected POGS when they were younger. I also had friend requests from people I didn’t know at all, and though I felt bad, I clicked the ignore button.
It’s interesting to see who I’ve been able to connect with through Facebook; an old high school friend, college friends, nieces and nephews, and missionary friends in far off lands. It really is amazing. And, through Facebook, I can connect with all of them in one posting.
There are a few things about Facebook that bother me; like seeing pictures of my friends at a party that I didn’t attend because my invitation was lost in the mail. Or, finding a photo of myself, posted by a “friend,” that shows me in some unbecoming pose. Who wants to see that?
Today, I got what I consider to be the perfect response to a friend request. Here is the very first message I got from my new friend: “if you post any fat pictures of me I will hurt you….” It cracked me up! I believe though that her request is too specific. I think that, in general, common courtesy should dictate that any picture posted on Facebook should make your friend look gorgeous. I mean really, isn’t that what friends are for?
If you haven’t ventured onto Facebook yet it’s not too late. But beware, it can steal some serious time from your life. On the other hand, it can add some joy and laughter to your day, and who can’t use some of that.
Wanna be friends?
Yes, my settings are pretty private too.. for example, you really cannot do a search and find me! It is a neat site.. and I found out I have a LOT more friends than I thought! WOw! Who would have known that I was *that* popular in high school. Certainly not I! I’ll go looking to see if I have any pictures of you to post! ;)
I was on facebook…for a week. I decided I didn’t need to know that much about people. I’m already addicted to a ton of blogs! I could live on my computer!
It is fun to connect with people you haven’t seen in a long time though!