More and more often I come across folks who are getting to hate Facebook, and I am starting to understand why.
Social Networking, as it has been classified, has made us more connected than ever before. Current friends, former High School/College classmates, teammates, fellow church/club members...you name it...it seems like everyone is connected to it somehow.
While being on Facebook is mostly innocuous, outside of the annoyances of some of those damn games/quizzes everyone seems to take, it can also be difficult on the ego.
Unfortunately I have to admit that for some strange reason or another, I have become paranoid after seeing this...
After watching the bit I got to thinking. What if...what if someone thinks I am delete-able?
Off and on throughout the day I'm wondering... Am I someone who could be easily wiped away from another individual’s life with little to know thought or consideration? Will I end up being the “trimmed fat” that is cut loose? The part of a movie, no one sees...left on the cutting room floor?
Suddenly I get this urge to justify my existence on Facebook. I post a status reminding everyone of how much fun they have when I break into “Haiku Week” for my statuses. Subconsciously I must have known this day was coming, as I arbitrarily decided that it was time to make this “Onomatopoeia Week”... and proceed to “PLOP SPLAT BOING” my way through statuses. I even suggested that in an effort to entertain and maintain my position on peoples lists that I would do the unthinkable and put the two together! (Which may indeed be a crime against nature; Ok so that perhaps is an exaggeration, but it would most certainly be a crime against Literature.)
Sadly I was un-friended by someone I had known for close to 16 years because of ANOTHER Facebook incident. (It’s a long and arduous story that I considered, but ultimately, have chosen not to tell or blog about. Suffice it to say that some people are EXTRA SERIOUS when they say Religion is NOT something to be discussed in polite company.) It isn't fun, although I do certainly understand it to be a fact of life.
Now, I look at my friends list and see that I have 428 friends. Not nearly as many as some on Facebook... but I am no “loner” either. Am I contacting these people all the time to arrange meetings for lunch or a BS session over a beverage after work? Of course not; however I refuse to delete anyone because, frankly, suggesting that someone is delete-able, to me, is an insult. The individuals I have in my list meant/mean something to me and have had an effect on my life. I am who I am today, in part, because of them and I choose to acknowledge that by keeping them in my list of friends. Even if that affect on my life is as minute as we met once at a party and had a great conversation about music...Whatever, YOU ARE NOT DELETE-ABLE!
I know not everyone feels the same way I do. Truth be told, I find myself standing alone in opinion for a great many things in this world. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to decide to break connection with a person, like I already mentioned I have been on both sides of that equation. I don’t think “because Jimmy Kimmel and William Shatner say I should”...is one of them.
(Incidentally, if Mr. Kimmel or Mr. Shatner asked to be my friend on Facebook, I would add them. Captain Kirk helped me believe that, if he could make out with interplanetary babes, there had to be someone in the Universe for me. As for Mr. Kimmel... well, that bit he did about f***ing Ben Affleck made me laugh so hard I peed a little...ok... not quite... but it was a GREAT bit)
