Facebook

Last week I finally got a facebook account. It is a pretty shallow and time consuming thing. I enjoy my blog much more because here I can express my true thoughts without feeling like everyone is looking at them and judging me. Of course, I realize that people can judge me here as well, but mostly only people I love and respect come to this blog, so I know that they will like me anyway, even if they disagree with me.

The main reason I got a facebook account was so that I could get on line and see my kids pictures that they post. Also, you can chat and message them faster than on email. But, you have to be lucky enough to be on at the same time that they are, and you can't really write very much. So, I often feel frustrated because comments and ideas expressed are often not interesting to me, people always want me to do quizzes and games, and the things that I really want to see don't change quick enough for me. Sometimes people make cryptic comments that I don't understand, but I do not feel like I should just comment on everything like this, "what do you mean by that?" over and over again.

Yet, even with all of my complaining, I still find myself drawn to my account whenever I have a free moment, in the hopes that there will be new pictures or info to gladden my heart. I should really be doing other more productive things. Alicia says she thinks I am an Internet stalker. I don't mean to be, but I do like to see what is going on with everyone.

I think about when I was the age that my grown-up kids are now. I communicated with my mom by writing letters and the occasional telephone call. I was a very good letter writer back then. I also wrote to my siblings and Glen's family as well, after we were married. Now I am terrible about writing, yet I love it when I receive a letter, personally hand written by my mother or someone else. It is a thing to be treasured. Someday my mom will be gone and those pieces of her handwriting written with sore arthritic fingers will be dear to me, even more than they are now, because she held the pen and scrawled the words. I can see more of her in those words than in a printed off email or message. I need to try to get back to writing letters. Handwritten letters seem to have a piece of the writer in them. Emotions and meanings are easier to see between the lines. Letter writing seems to be a dying art. When you watch the History Channel, much of the color of the stories and the details come from the letters that have been preserved over the years.

Well, I got off on a tangent about letter writing, but I guess my point is that facebook isn't a great way to communicate. There are better ways and there are more constructive things to be doing. So, while I will still keep my account, I am going to make an effort to look less often and not to let it become an obsession. Since I am already addicted to Mario Cart on the Wii, I can't afford anymore addictions. Maybe facebook is the reason I haven't touched the Wii all day today. Well, that and my garden.

I'm not sure how to end these ramblings, so I will do what 2nd grade students often do and just say, The End.