Facebook

You know when you first set yourself up a Facebook account? First you look for the people you think of as friends. But neither of them has an account.

So then you look for people you like and know reasonably well.

But it looks a bit pathetic only having 4 Facebook friends.

So before you know it you're desperately looking for acquaintances, colleagues, relatives, people you met on holiday, someone you bought a used car from etc, in order to achieve a respectable number of friends. Many of these unfortunates are people you've met or worked with and would have liked to get to know better but never had the opportunity (either because there was never the time or possibly because they were avoiding you). Every last one gets a friend request.

To a retiree who is has lost all those daily interactions with people at work that help to convince you that you're a real valid person, Facebook is a tempting way to perhaps replicate a little bit of what you've lost.

And then what? You can arrange a pop-up party when your folks/wife/kids are away, show off your photos, let people know where you've been on holiday or for the weekend, celebrate life events, arrange to not meet Facebook friends, and just generally keep in touch. Or just be nosey and watch through the digital lace curtains.

Then you can keep up to date with your favourite bands, restaurants etc. You can post enigmatic or opinionated comments  ...and reply to the messages your friends have posted, hoping to raise a smile or other response.

And you do find you can still connect with people that would otherwise just be history, which is wonderful.

Then what to do about there are the dozens of petitions you sign every year on all manner of humanitarian and environmental issues? Every one either has a tick box for posting on Facebook or is followed up with an email requesting you to share. I'm really selective with these; I don't want to be unfriended for badgering people, for goodness sake.


The down side to Facebook is the adverts, which thankfully are fairly easy to ignore. And the fact that it's mildly addictive,. especially to somebody as nosey as me. And you forget which friends are not on Facebook and therefore don't know about your latest grandchild/new job/hernia.