Facebook Rant

I forgot to mention last week that I deactivated my Facebook account. I know there are quite a few of you that I’m friends with on Facebook so thought I’d let you know there’s a reason why you can’t see me on there anymore. I apologize that I couldn’t give anyone a heads up. It had to be taken down pretty much immediately, following a security concern amongst other reasons. If you don’t already have my personal email address and would like it, just let me know.

In all honesty, I’m happy not to be on Facebook right now. I’ve always had a mild love with a strong leaning towards annoyance love affair with it. I can clearly recall when it first came out in 2006. I was sitting in my living room apt in Philly and couldn’t understand the fascination with it. M was all about it and was trying to convince me on how great it was. I also remember getting slightly jealous over her obsession with it…odd, I know. Anyhow… Facebook has brought nothing but trouble for me. And I also think that whereas it can be a great platform to connect with old friends, you also lose the excitement of staying in touch via a virtual world. How many of us have found old friends but hardly talk to them… why when you can receive daily updates of small snippets of their lives? I don’t know how I feel  about people knowing what I’m doing without REALLY knowing me in the first place. What ever happened to going the distance and investing time in those friendships over a half hour of coffee at least? How can you cram 5 minutes of years into conversation and pictures? I recently connected with one of my old best friends from my youth. For years I wondered how she was and had even heard she was diagnosed with Cancer. I thought she was dead…so imagine to my surprise when I had an invite from her…and she was still living in my home town. I was excited and we exchanged a few messages but after that, nothing from either side. Perhaps if I had run into her while on a visit, we would have made more effort to catch up. But Facebook makes it too easy these days. And the truth is, now that I know Emily is alive and doing well…now that I knew what she had done in the past decade and what her interests were in less than 5 minutes from glancing at her page… that excitement and curiosity dissipated. Why bother having coffee when everything is already there for you to digest? I yearn for organic connections, mixed tapes and hand written letters.  But anyhow…

I got a pleasant surprise today. A very unexpected raise at work. Here’s to a great start for a Monday.