347 friends

How easily we forget. I've forgotten what it's like to make an effort. To make an effort for myself, my friends and my relationships. It's not just me, though. As we get closer & closer, more attached & more attached virtually we seem to forget the real work of anything worth while.... of people. The people that matter most to us and make life LIFE. Yet somehow the most powerful tool that brings people together, facebook, can seem utterly alienating sometimes. 

Remember when you used to wonder how a person was doing and you'd call to ask them? You even knew their phone number by heart because you dialed it regularly? Today... well today.... I wonder how a person is doing and I check their facebook page. I do this so frequently that I feel caught up on people's lives that I haven't seen in years. But what am I caught up on? Just the blips and blurbs that they feel comfortable sharing with any person equally. It's not personal. They aren't telling me, Mary, anything. Just as I am not telling YOU anything about how I am really feeling right now. But somehow we all take comfort in this false sense of connection, simply because we like having 347 friends or maybe because we like talking about ourselves best of all.

I understand the attraction. It's relationships made easy. Interactions simplified to 'likes' and 'comments'. Moods boiled down to 'status's and 'wall post's. You can access dozen of friends in no time at all. But I'm starting to wonder if the easiness is just making the real stuff harder. Where suddenly a text takes too much time, a call seems out right inconvenient and a personal visit absolutely impossible.

Time and effort has been left out of the facebook equation. Zuckerberg's algorithms fall short there. And, lately, I find myself desperately craving both. I want to remember what it's like to work for the people I love. I want to feel my relations in real time. Real world. To feel my loneliness in full effect. Maybe that will force the effort out of me. 

So I think it might be time to disconnect. Unplug, delete and log out.

ps - stay tuned for facebook withdrawal post....