• I love reading updates from people on a daily basis who I would not be in touch with otherwise - former co-workers, cousins, other school parents. Our Facebook connection provides a layer of familiarity and comfort. Maybe it's a poor stand in for actual communication, but I don't care, because ...
• I hate the phone. I don't know why, but phone conversations make me completely anxious. I'm working on it.
• I like seeing photos of you and your kids. Not a zillion of them, but an every few weeks update to see what you've been up to. Bring it on!
• Yes, I'm one of those people who gets news stories from Facebook first. I don't regularly watch the morning news, and only read the news on my phone if I'm really bored. If something newsworthy happens, one of my friends will post it on Facebook. I'm also not a sports person, but can get a vague idea of how the Bills and Sabres are doing thanks to my friends' status updates.
• I don't follow every link that people post, but some have led to entertainment or information that I would not have found otherwise. I try to be very selective in link posting, and only post if something really strikes me or I feel it may have value to someone else.
• Facebook (via my good friend from junior high) has introduced me to online Scrabble, my second guiltiest pleasure (next to Bejeweled Blitz. Seriously, why is that game so addictive? But I won't post game updates on my status feed ... you're welcome.)
Pet peeves? Oh, yeah. This article definitely hit the hot spots. The vague post is the most annoying - the one that hints there is a deeper, but more personal, story behind the sentence. Either share or don't share!
Facebook is still the first site I go to in the morning and the last one I check in with before bed. And yes, I'm old.
I totally agree.... I joke that Facebook is a newspaper starring my friends & acquaintances.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the "like" button for this post... haha :)
I am someone who is not on Facebook and does not own a cellphone (yet religiously reads this blog!), but yours is the most persuasive, eloquent apologia I have heard. Thank you for it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder though if there is a cost to so much familiarity. Is there something meaningful in the experience of losing touch? Jeanette Winterson begins her novel Written on the Body asking the question, why is the measure of love loss?
Anyway, thanks for the writing you do here.