Online Street-Walking

There comes a time in every young life these days to ask yourself, "Do I or do I not delete my facebook."

At least, that is the buzz around Boston this summer. I have to admit that I have had the inkling to rip myself out of the overly social time-killer that is Facebook. It distracts me from homework, encourages me to mellow into afternoons of stalking people that I don't even know. Not stalking because I need to know these people, or have an agenda to find out what they are doing, but simply because my mind wanders and so does the mouse.  Have you ever been surfing through photos of friends when suddenly you find yourself looking through the vacation album of someone you don't even know? Just a friend of a friend of a friend who you managed to find through some tagged photo you thought looked interesting?  Well it happens, even if it doesn't happen to you. And when it does, it's weird. It is like when you are a little kid and you tug on the jeans of someone who isn't your mother. Not quite as startling but definitely as odd. You forget where you are and what you are doing, and find yourself gravitating towards what ever comes up.

So, since I started to realize that I wasn't paying very much attention to the fact that my social life was turning into some weird version of digital friendships and internet street-walking, I began to delete "friends." That's right. I went through the whole long list of names and chose to remove people from my sidewalk. If I have only walked by you once, "met you through a friend and will never talk to you again," then you got deleted. Not in an effort to spread offenses, but simply to remove the excess of contacts that we have been conditioned to acquire. There is no way I need to know everyone I have ever met for the rest of my life. People come, people go.  Which is why I believe Facebook should be saved for the people you have met and connected with, people who you have met and hope to connect or reconnect with, or people that for some reason you need to keep in contact with. For me, there are some people that make you feel good. There are some people that I never talk to on Facebook, never see in person, but because we have similar interests, share links or support each other's regular activity, I keep them around. Good status updates are always noted in my book, too. Some people just make me laugh, and even though we may have no real foundation for knowing each other, I like to support them by encouraging their style with a "like" once in a while.

This is the reason I cannot delete Facebook and why I resorted to simply cutting down the hoopla that is trying to make it's way into the Facebook world. Facebook is for friends to share and support each other and to keep in touch with those that have touched our lives.  In that way, internet socializing is a beautiful opportunity. But I think it's just important to know that the number representing your "friends" on Facebook may be a little off when you really take the time to count your friends. One of those situations where you recognize the excess in your life and can really appreciate the closeness that our technology can bring between you and your true friends.