Ok- Facebook has taken over the world... or so it seems. In recent weeks my friend list has gone from 50-something to over 150! And the number of posts I send and receive daily has quadrupled!
Why is it that one-liners and witty quips over the internet have so many people addicted?
I for one find it is easier to "connect" with people from my past with a certain air of anonymity. Yes, you remember them, and yes they remember you, but it could be awkward trying to find a common interest if meeting for lunch or at the mall after years of not being in each other's realm. But via the safety of the internet we can say things that we may not say in person, we can discuss issues with multiple people and get input and ideas that test our own sense of self without putting us "out there" where we would ultimately end up feeling foolish.
Online you can say "oops!" but in person... not so much.
I for one find that I say what I think, and feel more like myself when conversing with people online than I do in person. I am actually quite shy. I do not make friends easily and this bothers me. I also always feel like I do not quite belong, no matter the crowd. In high school I was in the band, played soccer, went to vo-tech, was in the national honor society, hung out at lunch in the smoking section... I knew people in every social clique, but I never felt as if I belonged in any of them. I did not hang out with people from school after school hours and I did not keep any friends from school after graduation. Except one. She was, and is, my best friend since the first grade. We only talk once or twice a year and she is still my best friend. That makes me sad and makes me wish I knew how to make friends in real life, not just online.
Perhaps this era of the WORLD WIDE WEB and FACEBOOK and BLOGGING will help all of those who lost track of friends and who want to make new friends. Perhaps it is not a bad thing. Perhaps, just maybe, it will help people like me to find the place where they belong and feel comfortable, not just sitting at a keyboard, but in the real world, face to face, interactions with people who have common pasts and common interests.
I can only hope that this will happen for me... either that I will have to join a 12 step program to kick the "FACECRACK" habit and will find myself sitting at home staring at the tv wondering what the rest of the world is doing... ok that's not gonna happen!
But FACEBOOK and it's ilk in moderation... sound like a good idea to me.
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