The jury's still out on the Facebook phenomenon, as far as I'm concerned. For two years, I sat quietly in my corner with only my initials for a name and no profile photo. I only opened a Facebook account so that I could have some clue as to what's going on in my teenagers' lives. Then one day Wynham said, "Gee, Mom, don't you have any friends?" That did it. So I post a photo under my full name and in a matter of weeks, I've got 146 friends (almost as many as Wynham, I might add...). Suddenly, I'm popular! Except that maybe I'm not...Here's the thing: you say to yourself, "I wonder whatever happened to..." whoever it might be from however long ago, and you find them on Facebook, just like that. Cool. Like the guy who sat across the aisle in biology class, mesmerising me with his detailed drawings, who now makes these incredible robots. Or my high school debate team partner, who's a corporate lawyer in NYC. Or the bunch of friends I used to carouse with in college, who are flung to the far corners of the earth. So now we're all in touch with each other again, right? Maybe not.
It seems like, in many cases, you'll get a friend request from someone you haven't seen in 30 years, but then there's no message, no catching up, just this "friend" connection. You can see how it happens, when everyone has so many friends to keep up with, but it's weird. Teenagers, though, spend hours posting the most inane stuff; I just don't get it, really.
So I'm on the fence. For finding old friends, or being found, Facebook is a great medium. For communicating, it stinks. The message is all wrong, in my mind, but maybe I'm just way too old fashioned. Why do two people sitting in the same room text each other when they could be having a conversation? Pick up the phone, for heaven's sake, or write a letter. Get out your inkwell and quill! Then you can scan your lovely handwriting and put in on the Web...
(photo courtesy of Mike Rivamonte)
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