Okay, so this is the time of year when my posts will be a little more erratic. The day job takes over, and being highly seasonal work, we are in high season.
Which brings me to today's topic - social networking. I've gone back and forth about whether or not to express my opinion, and since my brain waves are a short on creativity at the moment, I guess I'll go ahead and have my say.
Facebook. My Space. Twitter. And I don't even know how many others (well I know some of them, but those are the main ones). They're great ways to market yourself, they're great ways to keep in touch. But the more you subscribe to, the less time you have for your real life. Hence, I've limited myself to Facebook and to my writing social network sites.
One thing that has amazed me about Facebook is the old friends that I've reconnected with. People I haven't seen or spoken to since grade school, but who I remember fondly, nonetheless. People I've had longer standing relationships with. People I care about and would like to stay in better touch with, but time and distance seperate us. I opened my Facebook account to network with other writers, but very quickly, my family and friends "friended" me. Don't get me wrong, I still use it for networking, but it's use has expanded. How fun to connect with people I haven't heard from since I was 10 years old (and younger!). And yet some of these people are forever a part of me. I'm one of those people who hold friendships close. I don't forget people I've developed friendships with, even when they've faded into the past, or moved into different stages, so its fun to reconnect. And yet, for some of the long-ago friends, we've grown into completely different people (not all of us, but some). People I was close to all those years ago, I probably wouldn't develop a friendship with if I met them for the first time on the street today, but history holds us together. We can still reminisce about the fun times we had.
On the other side of that coin, I sometimes wonder if the reconnecting is always a good thing. I had some friends who had a very difficult home life. While we've all grown into healthy (for the most part), responsible people, I stop to wonder if renewing old acquaintances on Facebook dredges up ugly memories better left forgotten. We all have skeletons in our closets and memories we've tucked safely away. We move forward and away from some things better left forgotten. And then someone sends us a friend request and it all comes rushing back. No, this hasn't happened to me, but I have to wonder . . . then again, that's the writer's imagination - fodder for a new book, you think?
Like my blog, I try to keep up, but sometimes, after a twelve hour day in front of my computer at work, its very difficult to turn on the computer at home. So to my Facebook friends (and other places I frequent), forgive my inattention. I'll check in when I can, when real life is less demanding.
Anon
Also I have thought about the issues you raised in this one :-) I do get those friend requests ... from people I had huge fights with or were bad influences on me or really said or did some things that really affected me for a long time. Happily those people are from 20 years ago and I am a stronger person now who knows who he is -- strengths and weaknesses. It's become a sort of forgiveness practice for me. Hitting 'accept' is like saying, 'I forgive you' to those people. It's a way of letting all that crap go :-) Of course, that forgiveness things has gone both ways I assure you. Some things come with age. I think this is one them :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't that a great feeling! You're right, some of these things come with age (notice I didn't say maturity {G})
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