Facing friends on Facebook
Ah, the magic of the Internet. It’s the only place in the world
where you can be rejected by not just one person at a time, but
potentially millions.
A couple of my friends recently convinced me that life was not
worth living unless I signed up for Facebook. Facebook, in case you
don’t know already, is a Web site which allows you to create a page
about yourself that your friends can look at, comment on, and add
things to.
Facing friends on Facebook
Ah, the magic of the Internet. It’s the only place in the world where you can be rejected by not just one person at a time, but potentially millions.
A couple of my friends recently convinced me that life was not worth living unless I signed up for Facebook. Facebook, in case you don’t know already, is a Web site which allows you to create a page about yourself that your friends can look at, comment on, and add things to.
There are all kinds of fun, little time-wasting things to do. You can post a list of your favorite books. You can share photos or videos. You can put up a list of your favorite links. You can indicate favorite causes. You can also indicate if you are a fan of various celebrities, musicians or TV shows.
I have to admit that before I joined Facebook, I didn’t much see the point. Now I rather like it. It’s a shorthand way to keep up with what your friends are doing at any given moment, and is especially good for catching up with people from your past.
It kind of reminds me of being in the dorms in college and having a communal bulletin board for people to scribble on. That’s Facebook, except it’s in cyberspace.
The main challenge of Facebook is getting people to come and scribble. For that, you need friends.
Facebook friends aren’t just any friends, though. You have to invite them via e-mail. Only official friends have access to your page. However, this is a double-edged sword.
For instance, if you like to post drunken photos of yourself, you probably don’t want to invite your boss to be a friend.
I’m not doing that, mind you, but I did have to stop and consider every person who I was inviting in. How would they feel if they knew I supported gay rights? That I enjoy the music of “Weird Al” Yankovic? That I read romance novels?
I have had to pick my Facebook friends carefully.
And at the same time, I have to choose people who actually want to be my friends. This is a little trickier than it sounds. You see, most Facebook users are somewhat younger than I am. It’s harder to find baby boomers on Facebook, and so most people in my age group are simply not on it.
When I did start finding people I knew, I e-mailed Facebook invitations to them. I then worked myself into a lather when I didn’t hear back from them within an hour or so. What was the matter with them? Why didn’t they want to be my friends?
Then I relaxed a little, especially when I realized some people were otherwise engaged. For instance, one woman whom I didn’t hear from for several days turned out to be in Rome. So she did have an excuse. Of sorts.
I became much more forgiving as my friends list grew. Once I hit about 15 or so, I didn’t get too hot and bothered about people who didn’t reply. Hey, they don’t want to be my friends? Their loss!
My only mistake so far was inviting my son, Ross, to be my friend. Of course Ross, being 18, has a Facebook page. But he doesn’t want me to be able to see it.
He wrote to me, “to save myself from embarrassment because i know… you will show allllll your little friends everything on my facebook. I might have to deny u as a friend. I hope you will understand.”
I do now.
That’s OK; there are a lot of other potential Facebook friends out there in cyberspace.
If they don’t reject me too, that is.
