Facebook, unlike MySpace, has created this seemingly more wholesome connection tool that brings people together in a familiar, yet veiled, sort of way, resembling a cloud-like dating scene.
And I say that with some humility. It makes me look at my own reasons for "friending" someone, as Mira puts it. I guess my reasons are not without selfish intent... we put our best (if not honest) face forward in an imperfectly created virtual world. We never touch. We never talk. So, how honest is it?
I think in this day and age, these networks resemble high school all over again. The high school of being able to drive to a friend's house and hang out when we wanted to. The high school before work and family sucked the time out of the weekends to pay back the time our parents sacrificed for us. It's the continuum of karma. But I digress.
Remember when it was easy to see your friends everyday and hang out with the ones you clicked with, when you wanted to? Easy access, I call it. Then there were those friends you liked to hang with but only for shorter periods of time - for various reasons, not because they weren't good people. It's great to see them and catch up and joke, but seriously - there's a reason we didn't stay in touch, right? Too many people, too little time.
Thus the surreality of "friends" on Facebook and MySpace, etc... MyMike likes to say that reunions are sort of dumb because the people we still keep in touch with we liked. I say, we kept in touch with those we wished to and accepted those who wished to keep in touch with us because of convenience. And here's my dilemma: These portals are like very clean windows to the lives of people whom we used to know, and yet did not stay in touch with; however, I find myself drawn to their current lives, if for no other reason than to compare and contrast what I knew of them myopically, years ago, only to be stunned by their freshness and personalities today in the lives they've chosen, in the window they chose to open to us.
Fascinating, to be sure. I count myself as one who has left a few smears on my window because I am not a fan of too clean a life. Clearly... I live now with chickens.
And I say that with some humility. It makes me look at my own reasons for "friending" someone, as Mira puts it. I guess my reasons are not without selfish intent... we put our best (if not honest) face forward in an imperfectly created virtual world. We never touch. We never talk. So, how honest is it?
I think in this day and age, these networks resemble high school all over again. The high school of being able to drive to a friend's house and hang out when we wanted to. The high school before work and family sucked the time out of the weekends to pay back the time our parents sacrificed for us. It's the continuum of karma. But I digress.
Remember when it was easy to see your friends everyday and hang out with the ones you clicked with, when you wanted to? Easy access, I call it. Then there were those friends you liked to hang with but only for shorter periods of time - for various reasons, not because they weren't good people. It's great to see them and catch up and joke, but seriously - there's a reason we didn't stay in touch, right? Too many people, too little time.
Thus the surreality of "friends" on Facebook and MySpace, etc... MyMike likes to say that reunions are sort of dumb because the people we still keep in touch with we liked. I say, we kept in touch with those we wished to and accepted those who wished to keep in touch with us because of convenience. And here's my dilemma: These portals are like very clean windows to the lives of people whom we used to know, and yet did not stay in touch with; however, I find myself drawn to their current lives, if for no other reason than to compare and contrast what I knew of them myopically, years ago, only to be stunned by their freshness and personalities today in the lives they've chosen, in the window they chose to open to us.
Fascinating, to be sure. I count myself as one who has left a few smears on my window because I am not a fan of too clean a life. Clearly... I live now with chickens.
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