Social Net Worthing

Just had to show off my gold slippers-gak! Yes. We box, but I wouldn't write about THAT on Facebook.

It has been called a lot of things. SpaceBook. FakeBook. Place of the Lonely and Despairing. About 5 years ago I was sitting at the pool with my friend Wendy. She told me about this thing called Facebook. It sounded confusing and overwhelming and like a lot of fun. Because I like a challenge as well as a party, I wanted to see what this thing called social networking was all about. What do they say? The rest is history. 

From that day forward, every quip, high, low, trip or proverbial bump in the road has been charted and written down for cyber posterity-much to the embarrassment of my children (and let's face it, my Mister). I have reconnected with childhood friends. I have swapped recipes as well as prayer requests. 

Facebook can be a shallow game of one upmanship. It can be a tattle tale land for inappropriate and ineffective venting. I will admit to doing all of those things-only putting up the best photographs of my life despite the squalor that lingers in the corners-real and metaphorically speaking. And I will whole-heartily confess I am not going to become smarter by roving the pages of its ever changing design. But it has become my virtual community and helped me transition from living in one state to another (literally and figuratively). It has been a fun and sometimes useful place(renting a house, looking for doctors, help with school projects). Some might say Facebook is an excuse for not engaging in real life-real relationships. To them I say, "How else can you tell hundreds of people at one time what you are having for dinner??!!"

But seriously. This past January 1 I decided to take a 22 day hiatus from my online community. A fast from Facebook if you will. I started this blog. And have been helping in another writing venture. I would be lying if I said I didn't peek every once in a while. I would be holding out on you if I didn't admit it was hard. But in the end, it was also fine. Just fine. And I managed to make dinner, celebrate my birthday, and enjoy my brood of boys without my virtual voyages.

I am sure on January 22 I will return full throttle to the delight of my Facebook friends who enjoy such status updates as "Mom, to a boy an adventure is playing in the woods. To a girl, it's finding a pair of pants for 20% off." I will enjoy hearing about the lives of my friends near and far. Catching up on who is moving, getting married or having babies. Knowingly nodding (albeit in my kitchen)as someone rants about motherhood. Trying hard not to covet the vacations. And in turn I will try to post those unbecoming photos as well as the cute ones. 


To the naysayers, Facebook will never take the place of real community-it's just a fun place to play.