I Finally Have Friends!

I finally did...I finally joined the millions of people on Facebook. I'm not overly proud of it but at the same time I'm not overly embarrassed about it either. Sure, I feel like I have sold out; sure I feel like a hypocrite, but I finally got to the point where I realized that Facebook can be what I want it to be. Considering my disdain for Bookspace over the past few years, it really is an amazing turnaround.

I decided that I am going to try it for a few months to see if I like it. So far, it has been a bit underwhelming, but I think that is only because most of my friends are people that I see on a regular basis. Now don't get me wrong - it's nice to know what they are up to, but really, part of the reason I joined was to reconnect with a few of my friends from high school.

I have secretly been monitoring The Wife's Facebook account for a few months to see what I should expect. She has a lot of different types of friends. There are the friends that write on their own walls 20 times a day. There are the friends whose comments are incredibly boring or self-righteous. There are the friends that love to provide links to everything. And there are the friends who friend everyone, just to say they have 1000 friends.

I don't want to be any of those people. I never want to write on my own wall. No one cares what I am doing in my life. And frankly, I don't want everyone to know when I am taking a dump. However, I do want to write on my friends' walls. I want to ask my cousins boyfriend Brian about the Nets. I want to talk footie with Mike. I want to help C-buns make fun of Gorman. And I want to ask my hs friend Aramis who thought it was a good idea for him to have a kid.

I also don't want to have friends just to have friends. I am unsure how realistic it is, but I am going to try to have strict friend rules. If I did not talk to you in high school, I don't want to be your Facebook friend. If I haven't talked to you at least once since high school I also don't want to be your Facebook friend. Co-workers? Not going to happen - I work with you and on occaision I like to talk about my personal life, but I don't want you to see pictures of me with beer in my hand. I have yet to come up with a rule for college friends, but I only want to be your facebook friend if I would also have a drink with you at our reunion. If not, then I'm sorry but I don't want to be your friend.

In a nutshell, I want to use Facebook minimally and for specific reasons. I don't want to let it get out of control. I sit on the bus every day and am amazed at the amount of people who are focused only on their personal electronic device. I am amazed at how many people will stop mid-conversation to answer their phone or send a text. I am just annoyed at the amount of time people waste with their mobile devices. I don't want to become that person.

I don't know how this experience is going to be nor do I know if I will follow my rules. But one thing I can say is that if I feel myself slipping away; if Facebook is cutting into my time with my daughter; if I start checking Facebook at work I will step away. That I promise.