I blame Deb
So now I'm on facebook. You may point and laugh now.
I remember the days of the Elysian Fields BBS here in Wichita. Back when e-mail was a new concept, and most of the people on my facebook friends list wouldn't have known what TCP/IP was if it walked up and bit them on the ankle. Back when geeks ruled the internet. Chatting on EF was far more pleasant than any IM, because there weren't that many members, we all lived in Wichita, and since it was privately owned and operated, the mods could pretty much boot you any time you acted like a jerk. You made new friends, just by virtue of being bored online together, and these were friends that you could hang out with in meatspace if you were brave enough.
Now we have blogs, the Greater Internet D***wad Theory, and facebook - those early days of the internet taken to their logical extremes.
Wait, this is a blog, isn't it? Crap.
I suppose I don't have any real problem with facebook; it helped me find a few old friends that had wandered off into the world somewhere, so that's worth the price of admission right there. It's just that it's REALLY easy to get yourself into trouble on facebook, especially when you deal with other people's kids on a regular basis. Just browsing the 'flair' made me shudder, and not just from Jonas Brothers overload. (If I had been thinking I would have kept track of who had more flair items: The Jonas Brothers or Michael Phelps.) Even some of the few pieces of flair that Deb, the enabler that talked me into doing this, sent me have the potential to get me in serious trouble with the Valley Center crew were I ever to display them. The last thing I need right now is to come home from work and see Chris Hansen on my front porch.
That and you suddenly get reconnected with people you haven't had any sort of contact with in 5+ years and haven't had an intelligent conversation with in ... well ... ever, maybe. We WERE high school students at the time, remember. How do you bridge that gap in knowledge? I know how, you simply go on as if everybody has magically attained maturity, leaving all the good, juicy details out. Otherwise, you'd end up sounding more self-serving than Dick Cheney at Cici's Pizza.
"Well first, I dated this girl for two years and she dumped me...."
You're bored already. Admit it. You can't go through that breadth of information. The best you can do is to not act like the dork you were in high school, and that really is a noble goal in and of itself, facebook or not.
So, I'm on facebook. Anybody on my friends list here is invited to look me up if they want. Y'all have earned your stripes with me. Anybody from that side of the universe reading this, welcome. I'll get around to being more actively social before too long.
I remember the days of the Elysian Fields BBS here in Wichita. Back when e-mail was a new concept, and most of the people on my facebook friends list wouldn't have known what TCP/IP was if it walked up and bit them on the ankle. Back when geeks ruled the internet. Chatting on EF was far more pleasant than any IM, because there weren't that many members, we all lived in Wichita, and since it was privately owned and operated, the mods could pretty much boot you any time you acted like a jerk. You made new friends, just by virtue of being bored online together, and these were friends that you could hang out with in meatspace if you were brave enough.
Now we have blogs, the Greater Internet D***wad Theory, and facebook - those early days of the internet taken to their logical extremes.
Wait, this is a blog, isn't it? Crap.
I suppose I don't have any real problem with facebook; it helped me find a few old friends that had wandered off into the world somewhere, so that's worth the price of admission right there. It's just that it's REALLY easy to get yourself into trouble on facebook, especially when you deal with other people's kids on a regular basis. Just browsing the 'flair' made me shudder, and not just from Jonas Brothers overload. (If I had been thinking I would have kept track of who had more flair items: The Jonas Brothers or Michael Phelps.) Even some of the few pieces of flair that Deb, the enabler that talked me into doing this, sent me have the potential to get me in serious trouble with the Valley Center crew were I ever to display them. The last thing I need right now is to come home from work and see Chris Hansen on my front porch.
That and you suddenly get reconnected with people you haven't had any sort of contact with in 5+ years and haven't had an intelligent conversation with in ... well ... ever, maybe. We WERE high school students at the time, remember. How do you bridge that gap in knowledge? I know how, you simply go on as if everybody has magically attained maturity, leaving all the good, juicy details out. Otherwise, you'd end up sounding more self-serving than Dick Cheney at Cici's Pizza.
"Well first, I dated this girl for two years and she dumped me...."
You're bored already. Admit it. You can't go through that breadth of information. The best you can do is to not act like the dork you were in high school, and that really is a noble goal in and of itself, facebook or not.
So, I'm on facebook. Anybody on my friends list here is invited to look me up if they want. Y'all have earned your stripes with me. Anybody from that side of the universe reading this, welcome. I'll get around to being more actively social before too long.