A retired Washington Post reporter friend summed up Facebook this way - "I seem to be deeply mired in this strange community. I was more or less bullied into participating by my first wife and last kids. Soon I was surrounded by cousins, and friends of cousins, and friends and friends of friends. So far so good. But like Topsy it has growed and growed. Now I cannot turn on my computer without being importuned, er, invited, to become Friends with friends of the friends of friends' friends, people I cannot distinguish from Adam's off ox. I feel cajoled, even coerced, to invite them into my parlor. The choice is Invite or Ignore. My old Daddy taught me not to ignore people, even ignorant ones.
Why, I am wondering, do these people want to be my friends? Family aside, a few weeks ago I could count my friends on my fingers and a toe or two, and felt richly endowed. To me a friend, beyond trust, affection, likemindedness and congenial companionship, is at bottom a person whom you can ask to do something he or she would rather not do, but would rather do than tell you to fuck off. A person who's happy to go with you to a place about which that person could not care less but in which that person is happy to be because you are there. And vice-versa; equably disregarding one's own druthers is the bed in which love is born. But who are these, my new Facebook Friends? What is the point of this person-to-person, coast-to-coast Ponzi party? Why are these strangers telling me details of their lives and livelihoods, their likes and dislikes, their political persuasions, the years, makes, models and colors of their cars, the names and endearing habits of their dogs? I like talking about myself too, but only when I know who's listening. The more deeply I become tangled in this metastasizing mateyness the stranger I feel." On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 9:35 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > I've gotten a facebook account 'cause a family member died and there was a > facebook memorial page that was great, so I joined to show all the pictures > to our Santa Fe tribe. > > Now I've got lots of friends. What next? What do you guys use facebook > for? > > -- Owen > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
