The Craziness of Facebook

Facebook has fully invaded my life. Maybe a better description is taken over. Sound pathetic? Read me sad tale of Facebook woe.

A few months back, I received an invitation from someone to join Facebook. At this point, I really have no idea who it was. Maybe I blocked it out. I was never a My Space girl, mainly because I couldn't understand it. My first thought was, what the heck is Facebook? I remembered hearing at one point that it was for college kids and maybe highschoolers, neither of which I have been for quite a long time. Regardless, I accepted the invitation, set up a quick profile and left it at that. I have no idea how or when it happened, but months later, I have almost 300 "friends" along with photos (of me AND my kids, perpetual status update, lots of little green patch plants, cupcakes, hugs and other things that thankfully right now I can't recall. I think Facebook is pretty cool for a few reasons. First, you can see which of your friends knows which other of your friends. Some weird connections have come up that we never would have known about, sans Facebook. Second, you can find out what your ex-boyfriends former classmates are up to without stalking actually have to speak to them. I'm not really anti-social, and have a bunch of friends from high school and a handful from college that I speak to on a regular basis. Actually less than a handful. But it does make it less awkward to randomly run into someone that you've already e-mailed on Facebook than if you haven't spoken to them in 20 years.

I made my old college roommate promise that she would join Facebook while she was out on maternity leave. No work, no excuse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she said. Although unwillingly, she did join, and tells me every time we talk that she is catching up to me in friends. Then the e-mail I received from her the other day went something like this:

Thank you so much for getting me addicted to Facebook. If I get caught on Facebook while at work, I'll be sure to thank you again.

Thanks to me, she then learned how to disable her online status so she always appears offline. This is great, because her boss is one of her Facebook friends, and now he'll never know that she's surfing Facebook instead of actually doing work. I'm sure she looks busy, so it's all fine.

While there are selling points of Facebook, there are some weird things too. Like the groups - I skated every weekend at the Skate Factory in 1982 and 1983. Or how about I had a Gear Bag, Ton Sur Ton sweatshirt and had E.G. Smith Socks. Or my alltime favorite, Help....I'm Addicted to Facebook. Another weird thing is that people will friend you, but then not say anything. It's like, you want to be my friend, yet you can't send an e-mail to say "Hey, what's up? We haven't spoken in 20 years?" Or better yet, people friend me that don't even know me! Well, they might know me, but definitely don't know them. (Just a note, I don't accept).

Facebook has been proven to be pretty cool, in my book. I've reconnected with old friends, been invited to a psudo-high school reunion and been able to stay updated on new friends. So outside of being friended by my college-aged cousin and having her ask why I am on Facebook (read: you are too old) I pretty much think it rocks. So if you're on, friend me. But make sure I know you first ;)