I did it

After much hemming and hawing, I finally set up a Facebook account. Right now, it’s a novelty. I check out people who supposedly went to high school with me and have one of two reactions: (1) Oh yeah… I wonder how they’re doing. Or (2) Who dat? What truly fascinates and frightens me is how much of your time this can consume. I could tell the world everything about me from my hobbies to my shoe size. I can answer random questions, play games, chat with a friend, or simply look for anyone whose name I can remember (that’s right, I’m talking about YOU). I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t mildly entertaining. It was interesting to see that one of my best friends through middle school, high school, and college had moved to NC. The last time I saw him was at his father’s funeral a few years ago. The head scratcher is that he hasn’t responded to my request to be his “friend.” And neither has my other friend of almost 25 years who was in my wedding party. Come to think of it, neither has my sister or cousins.

In the meantime, a certain someone who hardly ever spoke to me during the 4+ years we worked for the same company, asked me to be her “friend.” Serioiusly? Even if I accept your invitation you still probably wouldn’t talk to me unless I was a hood ornament on your car and even then you’d probably still only talk to me if I was obstructing your view.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the site. I absolutely hate that they’ve bastardized the word friend. Why couldn’t they use the word acquaintance, buddy, pal, or person who has acknowledged my existence at least once in this lifetime? Okay, that last one was kinda long, but you get my point.

To keep myself from getting sucked into this online vacuum, I’ve decided to set up some ground rules for myself.

1. I will limit my time on the site to a max of 45 minutes a day M-F, and 60 minutes on the weekend. I know that doesn’t leave a lot of time to read/write on people’s walls and look at people’s albums, but so be it. If you have something really important to tell me, call, email, or IM.

2. I will not ask everyone whose name I can recall to be my friend just for the sake of having some arbitrarily large number of friends. Sure, I’ll accept requests to be someone’s pal (btw, I’m using that instead of “friend” from now on), but I’m not going to invite my entire graduating class to be my pal.

3. Related to number 2, I will not accept requests to be someone’s pal if I have no idea who they are. These people are called strangers and they’re going to stay that way.

4. I will not log onto the site from work.

5. I will continue to read the blogs that I visit frequently. I find blogs to be more personal whereas FB is like a billboard. I will continue to write in this blog. The Grasshut and Donkey came first and it’s going to stay that way. Yeah, I know I don’t post that often but that’s because you really don’t want to know all the random things that dart in and out of my oversized coconut. Trust me.