"I often wonder why people become "friends" on Facebook. Were we friends then, are we still now, and do we really like each other? Do we keep each other on the "list" to be nice and not hurt anyone's feelings? I gotta tell ya......I really wonder. How about you?" - posted by J S-B on Facebook 3/23/10. (I have used initials to conceal her identity).
I must admit, I have kind of looked at my "friend" list on Facebook with a quizzical expression on my face. At last count, I had 559 "friends", and I'm wondering how the heck it got so high. Many of them are family members, and legitimate friends that I have had over the years, still more of them are classmates from school who I knew, some more than others. Yet more are friends and acquaintances of my family members, like my younger sister's classmates, again some I know better than others. Still more are members of the Hockey Official's Association that I belong to, so I can see how the number can add up. However, I will fully admit that there are people on that list I may have met or talked to only once or twice in my life, and somehow, they requested me to be their friend. As J S-B stated above, is it a feeling of guilt and not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings that makes us keep so many people on our friends list? If some of these people on there deleted me, I honestly would probably not know the difference. That's a fact. It doesn't make me sad or anything, it just underscores the fact that I don't know what being a "friend" means anymore. Like I told J S-B, I have over 500 friends on Facebook, but I don't even know my neighbor's last name, and it isn't even on her mailbox, so I can't cheat.
This is the new electronic Social Networking society that we live in. For most of us , I'm sure it all started with MySpace. I had a MySpace page, but then that seemed to get overrun by 14 year olds, so I never go on there anymore. I really should delete that thing, but it's been so long, I honestly don't know if I remember the password I used for it. Facebook always seemed like the more "mature" network, but even that has gotten a little overrun with kids. Sad thing is, these kids like to swear just for the sake of swearing. I've never been a fan of that - and I have actually gotten into it with people in the mall who swear out loud. I am partially guilty of the kid thing, I hate to admit. Wyatt's former school friend made a page for him - created an e-mail address and everything unbeknownst to his mother and myself. We found it by accident. So we decided to make his page for him, controlling the password and everything. His page is suspended now because he keeps screwing up in school, and I'm seriously thinking of not reactivating it. My nieces have pages, and one of them has on more than one occasion used swear words on it, which she would never do in front of an adult in person.
After I'm done here, I will be thinning out my friends list. If I delete you, it's only because I'm lying to both of us why you should have been there in the first place. If we don't talk, we don't talk. It's not a personal thing. I'm not in a contest to see how many friends I can get. How many will I take off? Who knows? It has gotten out of hand though.
I thank J S-B for bringing this question to my head - and I will be keeping her as a friend - besides, we both have Keurig coffee makers, and that's a bond you just can't break!
Opinions welcome here or on the aforementioned Facebook - if I keep you...BWAH HAH HAH HAH! Seriously, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks, J S-B.
No comments:
Post a Comment