I had a post in my head for a while roughly entitled, "in defense of Facebook." My initial interaction was rough, as you might recall. My regular friends and relatives were just fine. But then I ran into some of my old high school and college acquaintances, and things got a little weird.
Well, I realized a real benefit from Facebook, however, that was only tangentially connected to those brief and weird connections. I have friends on Facebook that have allowed me to connect to them in ways that I simply would not be able to do otherwise. One is the lovely wife of the Bootleg Blogger. Facebook has allowed us to communicate about life and music and have some really nice connections. Others are right here in town--people I knew before, but maybe not that well. Now I see them at Starbucks or at a concert in the park, and they come up and talk. We now kind of know each other, and that is a good thing.
But Facebook is starting to freak me out a little. My 30th high school reunion is coming up in a few years, and so some of my former classmates are organizing like crazy. Facebook is pretty good for that too, of course, in that it allows you to make new groups, find "friends of friends," and communicate easily to those people. So, over the last two weeks, I have been inundated with friend requests or friend suggestions. Some of those have been really weird. My high school senior yearbook is right next to my computer, because I have to look most of these requests up. I was starting to question my sanity or my brain function when some of those came through and my reaction was "who the hell is that?" I reminded myself that I graduated with some 360 students and can't be expected to remember them all. Or even most.
But then there are those I remember. One, as it turns out, is a Michael Jackson fanatic. Every profile picture she has is about the late singer. Another was the BMOC of our high school. Seeing his picture reminded me of how little I cared for him in high school. Why in holy hell do I want to reconnect to those people? What do I tell them?
But there are a few that I would like to see. Enough to make me travel to Colorado? Not sure at this point. Luckily, I don't have to make that decision right now and will try to table the conversation. And in the meantime, I may have to "hide" a few from that class. It may be the only way I can face Facebook.
3 comments:
I'm totally going to Facebook this blog post.
My 10 year reunion was scary. People really ought to have changed in that amount of time. I'm not really sure what the point of reunions is, but I also fall asleep at graduations, weddings, etc., so I'm not really the most objective person to judge.
I'll buy you a beer if you're up in the Denver area.
"But Facebook is starting to freak me out a little. My 30th high school reunion is coming up in a few years,
My 20th is coming up this summer. I am having a similar experience with Facebook. Even though I am at a place in life that I wasn't during the 10 year reunion(reasonably successful, hot wife, have all my hair.) I cannot bring myself to go.
I grew up in a pretty hick town. In fact, when I started Facebooking high school classmates, one of them prominently displayed photos of themselves at a tea bag rally with an anti Obama sign, where Barack was spelled wrong. I “unfriended” them.
I am mildly curious about a few classmates, but overall my high school experience sucked, so why am I to bother? I have a feeling that some of the ones who would be cool, won’t come.
The last thing is, my hometown was pretty racist. Still is. Both my kids, who came to my family through adoption are African American. I cannot see us not getting odd looks when we whip out the family album.
Maybe I shouldn't assume the worst, but I cannot help it.
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