Facebook

File this under activities that are nothing more than a timesuck. For a long time I fought getting involved with Facebook. I didn’t see it as offering any particular advantages and figured that I had enough ways to waste time without engaging in a new activity.

And then one day I woke up and discovered that I had not one, but two Facebook accounts. It wasn’t quite as shocking as Gregor Samsa had in Metamorphosis, which is good because who wants to discover that they are a giant cockroach anyway.

On a sidenote I remember this teacher from high school who used to pronounce it as cock-A-roach. I can still hear that guy spitting it out with the emphasis on the middle. I think that he thought that it was a safe way to try and belittle students. Believe you me, if he called you a cock-A-roach he was none too happy with you. One of these days I have to share the story of the time we filled his classroom with his favorite curse word, but I digress.

I created a Facebook account as a sort of test. I had decided that I wanted to check it out, but I didn’t want to put a lot of effort into it. So I created one using a fake name and took the thing out for a spin.

For a short while it was mildly interesting. I was poked and poked back, threw sheep at people and tried to remember to duck when they threw them at me. And then one day I decided that I just didn’t need it, so I nuked it. Goodbye Facebook.

I didn’t think twice about it until I heard from a few real world friends. They told me about how they had used it to network and to reconnect with some mutual old friends and encouraged me to open up a new Facebook account. That got me thinking about it, but it wasn’t until my sister asked me to that I gave in to the madness again.

So once again I opened up an account only this time I used my real name and was surprised at how many people found me. In a short time I had a ridiculous number of friends. Some of them were people that I really consider friends and some were acquaintances. I kind of wondered if some of them were more interested in collecting vast numbers of friends than if they really wanted to reconnect with me.

But in truth I didn’t care all that much as it didn’t take any more time so what did it matter. And in reality I did find that it was an easy way to get back in touch with some old friends. We are scattered all over the country and the world so it is easier to drop a quick note on their wall or send a message than to call.

You’d think that I would have left well enough alone, but I didn’t. After a few months of messing around with Facebook and some correspondence with some other bloggers (Thanks Daled Amos) I set up a second account so that I could start a Haveil Havalim Facebook group.

If you are a member of the Jblogopshere and you have a Facebook account I encourage you to join. It is an easy way to be a part of the community and to share your thoughts about the things that are important to you.

Anyway, that is enough for now. Time for shuteye for this old man. Night from L.A.

Crossposted here.

I have intentionally been reluctant to get real involved with Facebook. I have such limited time that I have been hesitant to give away chunks large or small to things that don’t seem to have a solid payoff for my involvement.

Still, I am always interested in learning more about social networking tools that can be used for networking and reconnecting with friends and family. So with that in mind a short while back I found myself setting up shop there.

The process of adding friends reminds me of the concentric circles that form on the water after skipping rocks. When I first signed up the people I sought out were those who are closest to me. In my mind there was no reason to haphazardly add names to the list. I wasn’t interested in having more friends listed there than anyone else.

In fact, I am still not, but over time I have found that it was impractical and unrealistic to try and limit it so dramatically. Gradually I reached out to people who weren’t part of that inner circle and was in turn contacted with friendship requests by many others.

One of the interesting things I noticed from all this occurred because of one of my sisters. She has her own Facebook so periodically I have gone over there and looked at her list of friends. I am always surprised by how many names are unfamiliar to me.

She left home quite some time ago and has made a life for herself in a new city so it makes perfect sense that I wouldn’t know everyone on her list. Still, it seems a bit strange not to know them. I am the big brother. I have spent all of her life watching out for her and here I am wondering who Bob Delaney, Kim Connors and Jonathan Weissman are.

Anyway, I understand from her that one of my nephews and a niece have asked if they could do something like Facebook. I don’t know if they really understand what it is all about, they are still relatively young. But what I do know is that this is another sign that their childhood and that of my children is going to be dramatically different from my own.

I’ll save the value judgment for a different time. Just suffice it to say that it is a reminder to me that I need to stay on top of technology. They’re growing up with it, absorbing it the way I used to absorb baseball statistics. I don’t want to be the old man who hasn’t a clue what is going on. I am not trying to be the cool dad either, just don’t want to look around and feel like a dinosaur living in times that are not his own.