Facebook is the devil

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. First, the love.

It has allowed me to get back in touch with people from high school and college. This has probably been the best part of Facebook.
I can keep up to date on people's lives, from pics of kids, to where they went this past weekend, to what they are doing this very second.
I can reach a lot of people at once. Approximately five minutes after I was laid off, I updated my status to read "Faith just got the ax." Within 15 minutes, I received a ton of sympathetic comments, a few personal emails, and a phone call. This saved me a lot of trouble of sending out emails to friends. Since bad news travel fasts, I also received friendship requests from a half dozen people within the hour, mostly former coworkers who had heard the news because I was friends with their friends.
There are a ton of silly, pointless quizzes, some of which are kind of fun, especially the ones about friends. Who knew a friend from high school has been married three time? Not me, at least not until I took the quiz about her.
You can be a fan of almost anything. Another silly thing about Facebook, but it is a interesting to see what people like and to see what you have in common with friends and strangers alike.
You get to see a side of some people you might not have known. Sometimes this side is a little odd or unexpected, but most of the time it is what it is.

But Facebook has its drawbacks too. There are just some things about it that I either don't get or I just can't stand. For instance:

I think the term "friend" is used too loosely. I wish you could add "contacts" instead. Some people who have asked me to be their friend I barely remember. I am pretty sure I have never even talked to some of them.
Sometimes it feels like high school, the part I don't miss. I am so concerned about hurting a person's feelings that I have yet to reject a friendship request. In some cases, I am friends with people I am not sure I ever talked to. I wonder why these people bothered to friend me. Just to have a lot of "friends" for the sake of a big number? And in some cases, these people have never sent me a message, written on my wall, or commented on anything I have posted. So why did they want to be my friend to begin with?
When you have too many friends, it becomes hard to keep up. I have over 100 friends. I did not want that many; 50 would have been fine, but I have not turned any request down, for fear of hurting someone's feelings (see my previous point). But now I have to keep scrolling down on the off chance I may miss a good update from someone. It happened to me when I announced I was laid off; some of my friends missed that post and then had no idea what subsequent posts were about.
Some of the requests people send are annoying or questionable. With Facebook you can send people drinks, flowers, etc. I go along with some of those and ignore most. But when a guy friend asked me to lick his lollipop, I drew the line there. I did not want a comment posted that read "Faith just licked Aaron's lollipop." I don't think he meant anything by it, but if I were his wife and read that post, I would not have been happy.
Facebook is addictive and a huge time suck. Enough said.

I think it is funny how different generations use Facebook. I have a few young "friends" on Faceboook who just graduated from PSU this month. Unlike a lot of my same-aged friends, they are rarely on FB; a status update for them usually means telling everyone about a party or a fraternity event. For most of my friends, we write about what we are doing or just did, and more often than not it is about kids or current events.

I suppose I will continue to stay on Facebook, at least until the job search kicks into high gear. I have my profile set so only friends can see it, but you just never know...

Why do they stand up there and say that when they are just lying?

That extra-long title is courtesy of my nine-year-old and was something she uttered during "Say Yes to the Dress" on Friday evening. I watch very little reality TV, but I make an exception for this show because I like to look at the dresses. And sometimes, the stories are heart-warming. Typically at the end of the show, a snippet of a wedding is aired. In this particular show, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was exchanging vows with her fiance. After the two of them finished, J made her comment. I asked her what she meant as I must have been on the computer while the TV was on, and she explained that because so many people just get divorced, why do they even say "as long as we both shall live"? That is tough one, kid. I tried with what I thought was a sound explanation: Most of the people who get married truly believe they will be together the rest of their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. But if you don't think that you will be ...

Do you ever just want to run away...

Yesterday's post was a rant about a fairly pointless two-hour delay. For the record, if it is snowing in the morning or if it has snowed throughout the night, I am not against a delay; the road crews have a lot of ground to cover. It is unfortunate for those who still need to get to work and are left scrambling to find child care or have to go in late. But I am all about safety. It is the temps that are clearly going nowhere any time soon that do not warrant a delay, again, in my opinion. It will be cold all day today. Having another delay today, once again, seemed pointless, but I am over it. ***** I had a rough weekend, and I have debated whether I should write about it. As my mom and one of my brothers are so fond of saying (though I will be paraphrasing), "Once you put it down in writing (on paper or in an email), it will always be there. You can't take it back." For that reason, when things weigh heavily on my mind, I don't always share them in this blog....

TMI

When I refer to TMI, I am not talking about people sharing (often gross) things they probably should not. But rather sharing a friend's or a relative's personal information with a spouse or significant other. I know people who have cheated on their spouses, had abortions, have been raped or victims of domestic violence, committed (minor) criminal acts, did not disclose things to the government that they should have, suffered from various mental aliments, and who have been drug addicts or alcoholics. In most cases, I have not shared that information with Brian unless the person told me I could or I felt he needed to know for family safety issues (e.g., you have to consider who you let your children around). I am certain he would think less of some of these people if he knew things they did, so what purpose does it serve telling him? But more importantly, I want these people who confide in me to know they have my word. I can honestly say I don't think I can trust any of ...

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