Facebook & me

I've been developing a new appreciation for Facebook lately, using it more often --- and that's a good thing, I think. A cousin I hadn't heard from in years appeared there out of blue a few weeks ago and over the weekend, I learned that someone I'd known as a kid --- and sometimes wondered about --- was alive and well and living in California. Positive developments.

Belonging to two "You grew up in (insert name of town) if you remember ...." pages --- one for Chariton and the other, for Russell, has has been a source of much information and a good deal of entertainment --- love to watch those vintage photographs roll by and, as an accumulator of trivia, being able to answer questions now and then.

Then it occurred to me the other day that I could add a little visual interest to my "timeline" by looking at and re-evaluating some of those thousands of digital images that live on the hard drive and posting a few. That's been fun, too --- a modest creative outlet.

I wish more people would post more of their own stuff --- because I'd like to see it; but one of the beauties of Facebook is that you really don't have to do anything you don't want to do. In fact you don't even have to look at it if you don't want to. But I've always been one of those people who actually enjoys looking at other people's vacation photographs.

Several of my friends are related, which is good, too. Remember when folks wrote letters? Not much of that going on these days --- but there still are ways to stay in touch.

I like to watch the "feeds" of my friends roll by, although some don't. My modest number of friends (under 100; need to work on that; need to be more aggressive --- on the other hand, what does one do with 6,334 "friends"?) ranges from raging Republicans through libertarian loons to damned Democrats and I've discovered that the ideal antidote to a dose of right-wing propaganda is a counterbalancing dose of left-wing propoganda. Gotta remember to "like" Barack Obama next time the opportunity arises.

I think it's a good idea to avoid Facebook fights, however --- dueling comments. Chance are you're not going to change anyone's heart or mind and will succeed only in raising your own blood pressure.

"Liking" the pages of various bloggers and other sites I look at regularly is a quick way to keep track of what's going on --- without investing so much time and energy in surfing from site to site.

Well, I would write more about the wonders of Facebook, but have to go check my feed now.