Thursday, March 26, 2009

Wanna be my friend?

My friends had been harassing me for months about joining Facebook. "It's so fun!" they'd say. "What are you waiting for?" "Just try it!" "You're the only one not doing it, ya' know..."

Sounds like high school...all over again.

And I didn't really like high school the first time around.

I didn't even budge when pictures of a weekend getaway with friends were being held ransom on Facebook. Why can't you just show me the pictures? Oh, actual hard copies of photos are too last decade for you? Okay, how about you email them to me? Give me a CD? Make me a frickin' PowerPoint.

But alas, I gave in. Everyone told me I just had to be on Facebook now that I'm blogging. Fine. I begrudgingly joined. Everyone also told me that once I was on, I'd love it. "It's addictive!" "Don't you love it?!" "It's a whole new world!" I may be on Facebook but I'm still not into Facebook. Maybe I should not be admitting this publicly. Maybe I'm at risk of losing some of my newly acquired--and still quite tenuous--internet/blogging/techie credibility, but I just don't get it. For example, why is it that people who barely say "hello" to me at work are now suddenly asking to be my friends? People are popping out of nowhere..."requesting my friendship." Golly, gee, thanks, I'm flattered. (Not really.) It's like a competition...whose Friends List is the longest? I'm telling you, it's high school all over again...when we used to highlight the names of everyone we "knew" in the yearbook, even if we just sat near them in a class but never spoke a word to them, because the amount of highlighting in your yearbook was a testament to your social standing.

And can someone explain to me this phenomenon of "updating your status"? "Liz just woke up." "Liz is going to make dinner. " "Liz is preparing a bottle of formula." Do any of you really care WTF I'm doing at that exact moment? I know someone who was actually updating her status ("sitting at a bar with my girlfriends") while out with a bunch of us. Apparently, it is no longer enough to be really out with your friends, live and in person. We gotta hang out with our cyber friends simulataneously too. Now we are even multi-tasking in our relationships.

And really, are these relationships? Aren't we watering down the meaning of the word "friend"? If we're posting our pictures, our thoughts, and even our whereabouts online, how much time is left to actually socialize? (No, I don't consider Facebook to be socializing.) I mean, something's gotta give....even those of you who have lots of spare time (read: don't have children) are actually spending a great deal of yours online and simple math means that there is less of it left for The Real World.
I know, I know...you guys are gonna go straight to Facebook and delete me now, aren't ya?

4 comments:

  1. Gee, Liz. Tell us how you really feel... really. Don't hold back...

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  2. this is an old blog of mine from my days at mdcps... sorry - must update, i guess... -Roxanne

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  3. Hahaha!! I felt the same way about FaceBook at first...not sure when things changed for me but now I'm on almost every morning, mostly to play a few word games while everyone else is still sleeping. Lately I've been reconnecting with old friends, which is nice, especially since these are people who I haven't seen in years!! The site I don't get AT ALL is Twitter....I joined it but I just don't get it. I think its retarded. Here's a video that sums it up just right - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w - I feel the SAME WAY as the brown haired character!! (If the link doesn't work, just go to youtube.com and search "twouble with twitters" (not a typo). Enjoy!! ^_^

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  4. ok, since you were referring to me on this post (i'm the person who updates my status at bars people) i feel the urge to respond...
    social networking is kind of strange to our generation, i agree. i psychoanalyzed the whole thing more than once when i first started using it... it's very narcissistic and pretentious yes, but i will discuss details with you personally because i don't feel like typing my long conclusions...

    long story short, get over it.

    i'm tweeting on a daily basis now, and it's not about what i am doing but more about what i am thinking...
    i follow people i admire on twitter and it's like an insight into their soul. i can find out what richard dawkins is thinking 5 minutes after he thought it! (he's not the actual person that runs his tweeter account but you get the idea).
    as far as high school, well, life IS a never ending high school anyway, whether you are on facebook or not.

    anyway, it's a different realm, you can't judge it by real world standards. and no, just because people are on your facebook doesn't mean they're your real friends... but so what, they might be someone that needs your services!

    facebook friends will never replace real people, i might update my status to my cyber buddies but i'll get right back to having martinis with my girls liz and jenny...
    plus, it's just like texting, once you start, you can't stop!

    welcome to the 21st century.

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