Then I woke up, looked around and saw that only 5 of my very closest friends were ever commenting or communicating with me. And everyone elses pages that had been for as long as I had were exactly the same. Everyone really only has about 5-8 real friends. That’s all you can manage in real life. So, 90% of my “friends” were actually just old High School, Middle School or gulp – Elementary School classmates. Why was I cool with them seeing my good photos and my drunken photos too? Why was I letting them into my world of personal thoughts, funny quotes, embedded music players and embarrasing photos? So, I got out my scissors, I started making some cuts (i.e – deleting friends). But, I felt like such a mean person everytime that I did it.

Fast forward 1 week ahead… me and one of my real life friends are walking down the street to get some coffee and I run into some facebook “friends”. A couple of guys that I went to school with. I was awkward! I couldn’t ask them what they were up to because I already knew – I got the bulletins. But, I didn’t want them to know that I actually read their bulletins b/c even though there puttin’ it out there, the level of real friendshipy like trust wasn’t there and I thought maybe they would think I was interested – and I didn’t want to seem interested b/c one of the “friends” was someone who had a crush on me and sometimes sent me random comments about my photos.

Still with me here – So, anyway – The meeting was awkward – I just introduced them to my friend and tried to escape as quickly and cooly as possible.

After that experience, I knew that wanted to live like I did in the late 90’s or early 2000’s. I wanted to be free!! So, I deleted it and It felt soooo good. I was free to go to as many parties as aliked and not feel the need to lug my camera around with me. I can now hang out with whoever I want, whenever I want and not be worried about whether or not they are secretly mad at me b/c there not on my top friends list. Now, the only people that know me are the people that I actually know and spend time with or will at least pick up the phone and dial 10 digits to get in touch. Hell, texts are good too.

Well, I hope this social networking is a fad that will putter out in a few years. In the meantime, I’m just going to keep on keeping on and try not to take things personal. Life is too short, so have fun and put it in your scrapbook and share it with your friends. Don’t cheapen yourself. B/c once the cycle of “cool” starts it never stops and you become a parody of who you really are.

Oh and I know all about Facebook too. I had to create it for my job as I’ve been told to create and application for viral marketing. But, I used my real name – no photo – some of these same people found me and I accepted their friendship. It’s clear that my profile is all about the company that I work for. Facebook doesn’t make me rank people, that is a plus. But do I really need to know everytime one of my random “friends” does anything to prove that he or she is still alive – aka – poke, throw things, friend people, mug people? The live feed is a pain in my a$$.