Facebook Schmacebook

So I've done an amazing job of staying away from Facebook. I've never really known what it was, I just knew that it was IN and that usually means that it's something I am not involved in. I usually get with the 'in' crowd about 2 years after it was popular. I'm just kind of slow.

Then Adam went ahead and started doing the whole Facebook thing. He has some grand plans to create all these computer things to go along with it (I do a wonderful job explaining what he does, don't I?), so he got excited and wanted me to look at it. I, of course, said no. I can't just be doing things because he told me to. What kind of wife would that make me?

So then my brother-in-law goes and gets a girlfriend. He, of course, can't just send me a picture of her through email, because that would just be so HARD. This is where I give in and sign up for Facebook. It took me forever, might I add, since they wanted to know so much about me. Kind of like the weird people you sit by at the DMV--the kind that just keep asking you questions about your life and before you realize it you're telling them about your childbirth experiences.

But I digress, so now I'm on Facebook and there are a few things that I just don't get. Like this whole wall-writing thing. Why would someone write on their own wall Do they not already know what they're thinking? Is it for journaling purposes? But then, who actually writes exactly what is going on in their head right then? Wouldn't they edit it to make it more humorous?

And then there's the whole "friends" thing. I understand that you want to be able to approve those who look at your page. I can get behind that. What I do not get is why people just want to have more friends listed on their page. Is it some sort of popularity contest? One time when I was in elementary school my brother, Michael, and I were trying to see who had the most friends so we started making a list to name them all. We both wanted to win so we ended up just writing all the names of the people in our class. Is it something like that? I've had some people request to be my "friend" and I have never spoken to them in my life. I know who they are, but not a word has been shared between us.

Is this what we build friendships on these days? Just knowing the name of someone? Don't we need to know if the person has any quirks that would bug us, and thus prevent us from wanting to be their friend? For instance, I LOVE Boyz II Men and I am currently putting them on my mp3 player. Do you still want to be my friend? I also don't own an ipod, it's just a plain old mp3 player. Does that make me any less interesting? It's fine if it does, I just think we should lay it all out there.

Now, there are some good things about Facebook. I've been able to find some of my friends from high school on there, which is fun. I did request to be their friend, but that's because I was already their friend. I guess our friendship must've expired or something, which is the reason I had to re-ask. I also like the fact that of the 8 people I asked to be my friend the first night I was on it, my husband, my eternal companion, life partner, whatever you want to call him, was the LAST person to accept my request. I also like that my brother wants to be my friend. That part makes me laugh a little bit.

So there you have it. My thoughts on Facebook.