I've been a casual Facebook user since about 2001, when I was a grad student at St. Kate's, and Facebook was still reserved for .edu email addresses. Back then, it was refreshingly romantic and new. Your circle of friends were only those people you went to class with; there were no parents or co-workers. There were no random people from your past. There were only people you knew and interacted with in the non-virtual world too.
A lot has changed in the past 10+ years. Facebook has reached over 1,000,000,000 users. My aunts and uncles are on there... old acquaintances who barely said in the first place... people from all aspects of my life.
I've had two odd experiences today. First, someone that I'm "friends" with asked me why I accepted her friend request years ago. I couldn't even figure out who she was anymore, and she wouldn't share details with me. It was clear she went to my high school given our mutual friends, but I had to go to my yearbook to figure out who she was. I've since unfriended her. Odd that unfriend is now a common verb. Second, I made what I thought was an innocent post today. Turns out I offended someone. In this world of political correctness, it has become harder and harder to not offend someone, and with the instant access and decreasing attention spans, with people needing info now so they can make snap judgments moments before now, just about anything you type can be taken in a way you didn't intent.
Sometimes these offenses are grounded and founded. Other times, I just think people are looking for an argument.
If my world weren't so connected already, I'd just delete my account. I don't think I'm ready to pull that trigger yet, but I'm considering stopping all status updates for a while. We will see.
Obviously, I'll still post this blog entry there. Grrr.
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