Facebook

So this evening I was talking to two of my co-workers that I see regularly, and a worker at St. Joseph’s Hospital about Facebook. Jaci has been into it for a few weeks now and I started up maybe a week and a half ago.

There are some things that I have noticed. There are many listed as “friends” that I work with, or talk to, or otherwise communicate in some fashion on a reasonably regular timetable. There are also a number of people that I haven’t seen, or spoken to in some time. Either old classmates, work mates, etc etc.

So I have been beginning to ask myself, if I haven’t spoken with in , why is that? Did we grow apart? Did we make attempts to stay in contact but one of us wasn’t that interested? Or was it simply that while we were together in a particular context we got along really well and then we both went different ways. It’s not that we didn’t or wouldn’t get along famously, our life paths are just different.

Case in point is a guy named Eric. We were roommates one summer (2000 I think) and we got along very well. Same interests, hung with the same crowd, same sense of humour, the works. After the summer, whenever we would see each other or talk, we’d laugh and have a great time. But we’ve moved on. We keep saying that we’ll get together, and maybe we will but for now we chat once in awhile on MSN and that works for us.

The other side of the coin is that some people are in our past for a reason. It’s not necessarily that you don’t (or didn’t) like them but you didn’t see the need to stay in touch once school was over, or you changed jobs, or whatever. Should you add them as a facebook friend? If they want to add you, it’s easy to say “no” but who wants to be the cause of someone else’s rejection? I (usually) don’t. I also have issues about the word “friend”, about which please refer to an earlier post.

So the conundrum continues.

Call me old fashioned, but I would rather send or get an email, or dare I say it, a phone call! Even if they are few and far between, it’s seems much more personal. I like personal.

It seems that old fashioned letter writing was replaced by the large scale use of the telephone, which was replaced by email (poorly formatted letter writing) which is being replaced by text messaging and “wall” graffiti. Makes you wonder why some have a hard time understanding why it is that common and effective communication is no longer common or effective.

Be well all.