Saturday, January 05, 2013

FACING FACEBOOK


Or why do I do it?

A few years ago I got on Facebook on the recommendation of an old classmate of mine while trying to find classmates for a planned high school reunion. Since that day I have visited the page all too often, and with the same dedication as a Wall Street investor checking a ticker tape.

Now there is nothing wrong with Facebook that a good enema wouldn’t cure, but still I saturate my brain with: ‘Likes’ ‘Comments’ and ‘Share’ clicks. It is so bad I had to seek spiritual guidance in the form of an old friend of mine, JoJo Cardinal Chocolate’! He on occasion has taken to make spiritual announcements to help guide the misguided. Being how I am misguided, he leads me often.

The good Cardinal
One of the things that I find frustrating is the use of the same old thing, day after day, for instance the request to click on something within 3 seconds and see what happens. Maybe you need to find the ‘mistake’ or maybe you need to get a catchy saying or smart-ass photo off the Internet to prove you are savvy.

There was an awful (and I mean awful) amount of political posturing going on between the liberals and conservatives this past presidential election about how ridiculous the other side is. We don’t need Facebook for that: that is why we have congress.

“LOL”, “OMG”, and “LMAO” not to mention: “TTYL” have all taken hold in our ordinary lexicon thanks to Facebook! One cannot even escape the ads that now appear in the media without a reference to: “Check us out on Facebook” being included. I remember when only the reference to a website was a novelty then an everyday occurrence.

We have discovered old friends and enemies and have made new friends and enemies, ‘friend’ing and ‘unfriend’ing as we go. I even have friends and relatives that I never had before, and don’t know anything about them, but let’s face it, who cares?

I have seen the proliferation of under classmates and classmates who now have grandchildren, thinking they are too young for that, and I have all too often heard of the demise of one or two every few months.

Then there is ‘instant messages’. How do you gracefully end a ‘IM’ with someone. Actually they pop up and someone always writes: Are you there?” Well physically yes, but mentally, emotionally, who knows?

I’m not going to twitter about it, but you know what I mean