Oh My Goodness Gracious!
It's been more than a month since my last post! Shame on me!
I really have no excuse, except for the usual: insane work schedules (including weekends), general fatigue in the few moments of the day when work does not call, and the time-sucker that is Facebook.
Facebook is wonderful. Facebook is also horrible.
First, the wonderful part. I've gotten back in touch with friends I thought I'd never hear from again. People I went to school with long ago (one of them is my nursery school teacher's son!), one or two old pals from my comedy widow past, several people from my brief reign as a Syracuse new wave superstar... And, of course, it allows me to keep up with the closer friends who lured me into the Facebook experience in the first place--on an hour-to-hour basis if I so wish--and I've been able to have several live chats with stepson Greg, which is great, and one wonderful chat with my old pal Amy, who is in London at the moment. How cool is that?
But there's the horrible part, too: It eats up so much time. Once you start catching up with people, you can't stop. The urge to view every photo posted by someone you haven't seen in twenty years or more is surprisingly strong--almost impossible to resist! And there are the invitations to join this cause, to play that game, to become a fan of just about any performer, artist, writer, etc. you could think of (except, apparently, the incomparable Irma Thomas! Feh!)... and then there are the friend requests. Because one of my original Facebook friends (one of the folks who lured me there in the first place) is a rather well known genre writer, she has LOTS of friends. And a whole bunch of them suddenly wanted to be MY friends. Not wanting to be rude, I accepted most of them. But now I have all these friends I don't know, asking me to join this and become a fan of that. Enough!
The die is cast--I'm a confirmed Facebook addict now. But I will try my best to stop ignoring my poor little blog here!
I have lots of kitty pictures I can bore you with (Mifune, it turns out, is much smarter than Shelly was... and just as much of a pill), and I think I will take advantage of the scanner to upload old road trip photos, since the odds of a road trip in my near future are slim (given the aforementioned craziness of work). I'll do my best!
I really have no excuse, except for the usual: insane work schedules (including weekends), general fatigue in the few moments of the day when work does not call, and the time-sucker that is Facebook.
Facebook is wonderful. Facebook is also horrible.
First, the wonderful part. I've gotten back in touch with friends I thought I'd never hear from again. People I went to school with long ago (one of them is my nursery school teacher's son!), one or two old pals from my comedy widow past, several people from my brief reign as a Syracuse new wave superstar... And, of course, it allows me to keep up with the closer friends who lured me into the Facebook experience in the first place--on an hour-to-hour basis if I so wish--and I've been able to have several live chats with stepson Greg, which is great, and one wonderful chat with my old pal Amy, who is in London at the moment. How cool is that?
But there's the horrible part, too: It eats up so much time. Once you start catching up with people, you can't stop. The urge to view every photo posted by someone you haven't seen in twenty years or more is surprisingly strong--almost impossible to resist! And there are the invitations to join this cause, to play that game, to become a fan of just about any performer, artist, writer, etc. you could think of (except, apparently, the incomparable Irma Thomas! Feh!)... and then there are the friend requests. Because one of my original Facebook friends (one of the folks who lured me there in the first place) is a rather well known genre writer, she has LOTS of friends. And a whole bunch of them suddenly wanted to be MY friends. Not wanting to be rude, I accepted most of them. But now I have all these friends I don't know, asking me to join this and become a fan of that. Enough!
The die is cast--I'm a confirmed Facebook addict now. But I will try my best to stop ignoring my poor little blog here!
I have lots of kitty pictures I can bore you with (Mifune, it turns out, is much smarter than Shelly was... and just as much of a pill), and I think I will take advantage of the scanner to upload old road trip photos, since the odds of a road trip in my near future are slim (given the aforementioned craziness of work). I'll do my best!
Labels: apologies, Facebook, work insanity
posted by Cathy VanPatten at 4:57 PM
6 Comments:
Ah, yes, Facebook is good and Facebook is evil--don't I know it!
But since I'm seeing ukulele stuff all over the 'Net, you might want to get off Facebook long enough to check out:
Beatles Complete on Ukulele Blog
Interview With Warren Buffet about Ukulele
Shelley Rickey plays "Tonight, You Belong to Me" on her handmade cigar-box ukulele
Oh, yeah--then there's The Chameleon Guitar
I am right there with you! I'm severely addicted to Facebook and my blog--pfft, why bother? I may as well shut it down. I've been a pitiful poster for months now, if not a year!
GW--thanks for the links! I am a member of a Facebook group called something like "I play ukulele and therefore I am cooler than you..." Heh!
Jenn--I enjoy reading your blog and "watching" that little boy of yours grow up via photos--I hope you keep it going every once in a while!
Ah Facebook, yes. It is addicting. I have learned that I do not play games on Facebook, period. I might join causes, but I seldom, if ever, then spread them out from me on to other people via more invites. No games. Period.
Be strong.
There's a lovely little button you should become acquainted with on Facebook. Its name is Ignore. Once you start hitting that little button, you'll feel liberated. ;-)
I guess I'm not very tech savvy or something, but I don't understand why people throw things at me on Facebook. Or want me to join all sorts of causes that probably accomplish nothing more than having my name on them. So, I hit ignore so as not to have to try to figure it all out.
However, some of my middle schoolers from church have sad little pages where they post constantly, but no one comments except maybe their moms. So to be nice, sometimes I throw stuff back at them. You know, because middle school is a hard enough existence without having your mom be your only Facebook friend who comments or anything.
Oh, and apparently, I have the memory of a gnat. I don't recognize half the names that request my friendship. I have to look way too many of them up in old yearbooks. I guess that's what comes of attending multiple schools. Either I can't remember worth crap, or I'm just extraordinarily memorable. I'd like to claim the latter, but I suspect it's actually the former.
Am I the only one with these issues?!
As I recent FB'er myself, I feel your pain (or should I say, dilemma?). I try very hard to limit my time on FB to 30 minutes per session... and then of course I must try to limit the number of "sessions" I have! Argh!
However, like you, I got back in touch with some people I never thought I would hear from again, and for that I am grateful. The advice from your friends is right, though, 1)hit "ignore" and 2)back away from those blasted games. I've been making a concerted effort to post on the blog more... I even included a link to it on my FB info page.
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