Writers' Group

Some Random Thoughts (or Questions) about Facebook

By Kay Carlsen
Having recently opened a Facebook account only because of a request from a high school classmate who wanted to start an alumni group of our graduating class, and being new to the social networking scene, I have a few observations.

If I spend a lot of time on Facebook, will I be capable of anything other than random thoughts?

How much information do I really want about other people’s minor illnesses? Do you suppose I could contract the stomach flu through Facebook? I sure hope not, but it seems to be making the rounds.

How do people who have 946 friends keep up with all of them? I have 34 right at the moment, and occasionally that seems like more than enough.

What’s the idea of poking someone? I always thought that wasn’t very polite. I must admit, I don’t quite get it, but I obviously don’t have everything figured out yet. That includes the chat feature, although I have used it a couple of times.

The number of people I know on Facebook is quite amazing, and they include people of all ages - from my 15-year-old granddaughters to my 80-something-year-old aunt.

Is there anything very interesting about what games people have been playing and what their score was? I have a hard enough time being interested in what the Vikings are doing, or not doing, as the case may be.

What is it that compels me to log unto Facebook every time I get a e-mail message telling me what someone has posted on my wall or commented about one of my posts? After all, the e-mail tells what they said. Then once I’m on there I spend 15 minutes checking on other people to see what someone else may have written to them.

What is truly interesting to me is seeing the web of relationships that connect us all. I know a certain number of people, and they know a certain number of people, who in turn, know even more people. As the English divine John Donne wrote nearly 400 years ago, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” While in a sense it is true that all this technology can isolate us, it can certainly be used as a tool to keep us more connected with our relatives, friends and acquaintances around the world. Who knows what old friend or acquaintance I may discover tomorrow? While I suspect John Donne had no inkling of how we’d be communicating in 2010, I think he might have approved.