Friday, May 2, 2014

Late Bloomer

Maybe I'm a slow learner, but years after Facebook first hit the web I'm finally getting really into it.   I'm at the trailing edge of the trend.  I guess I should get used to the feeling, now that I'm old. 

I've seen some strong opinions about Facebook, and have heard stories of people who've sworn off it entirely.  I'm not sure exactly why.  Maybe some of their so-called "friends" didn't have as much in common with them as they thought.  I can see that being a problem.

I've been pretty selective about who I've created "friend" relationships with.  Not that I've been inundated with requests.  I have 68 "friends", most of whom aren't actually active on Facebook much at all.  For example, my mother-in-law never seems to log in.  (I was kind of counting on that when I accepted her friend request.)  At most there are a dozen or two people whom I regularly see in my feed, and only around 10 people I have marked as "close friends" (meaning I receive all of their updates).

Over the past year, I've become more active on Facebook, mainly interacting with the friends I see every weekend.  It has become a venue for our teasing and in-jokes, so that I feel like I get a little bit of weekend happiness every time I log in.  I've started logging in first thing every morning, and as often as not I'm rewarded with my first smile of the day, when a friend has posted something silly like this:



(Credit for this gem goes to DarcKnyt.)

So, for all the fuss about how technology is making us lonelier, I am a Facebook fan.  I suppose it's because I use it to nurture real relationships that were strong in the first place.  Too bad it's not like that for everyone.

9 comments:

DarcKnyt said...

I'm so glad to have been your first smile of the day! It makes me smile to know that, if you want to know. :)

Have a great weekend, Spark, and many blessings!

Warped Mind of Ron said...

I mainly log in to Facebook live vicariously through others.... it's how I roll. ;-) Glad I'm one of the few.

Jenski said...

I try to keep my "friend" list "clean" and will clean it out occasionally. The most recent unfriending casualty was the ex. It was a smart move. :-)

Granny Annie said...

It is a toss up for me. I share a love/hate relationship with Facebook but guess the love is stronger because after a 40 day Facebook Fast during Lent, I was glad to be back (kind of)...

LL Cool Joe said...

I really have no desire to be on Facebook, the truth is I don't want contact with my extended family and friends on-line. I find their posts a bit boring, and my life is too, so I really don't want to get to the stage where I'm telling everyone I'm going to bed now or that I'm about to buy some milk. :D

G. B. Miller said...

I found FB to be a safer alternative to the chat rooms. As you know, I'm on FB although unlike others, not hardcore. At the most I'll hop on for a total of about twenty minutes per day, although slightly longer on the weekends.

Ileana said...

I'm so glad I found you again (I once went under the name, Scarlet)...while browsing through my reading list on Blogger.

I happen to have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I mostly use it for the humor, inspiration, pics, quotes, artwork and all that good stuff. When I sense trouble or drama, I either defriend/block or ignore. So far so good.

Lynn said...

I like facebook, but I never post anything about myself. And I like most postings, but not the people who go on vacation and post photos every five minutes. I always want to say, "Why don't you relax and not not share for a bit?" :)

Vanessence7 said...

FB is still hard for me to "get." So much of it seems confusing. I try to get posts on a reader, and that helps. I don't check in as much as I guess I should though, and I almost never post, because, well, I'm boring.

Having friends to connect with as well as something to say, makes all the difference. :)