So...this Facebook thing...

Well, I was all set to be super-duper productive on (plant-based) steroids this Chrismukkah while my wee one was galloping through the house, high on Rice Nog and assorted crunchy tooth decay facilitators, but then my very good friend from college lassoed me like a plugged-in Annie Oakley and now I find myself whiling away my minutes on Facebook. A minute here or there turns into whole big pockets of wasted time, as we know, but how else will I know if someone I haven't seen in fifteen years - and my B-12-deprived brain scarcely remembers to begin with, thinking, 'Was she the one in my printmaking class? Why would she get in touch? She hated me. I never really understood that. Oh, well, I was kind of obnoxious. Or is she the one who dated that pothead I vaguely remember? Or were they the same person?') has successfully potty-trained her toddler. Or if that guy who is friends with my old friends has figured out how to work his new digital camera yet. I used twenty seconds of my precious time - twenty seconds I could use productively and purposefully, or, at the very least, I could have swept the kitchen floor in twenty seconds - uploading this information about toddler poop and camera frustrations into my malnourished brain. My brain desperately needs to be filled with with dense, enriching material like a new language or Remembrance of Things Past, but it hungers for this other stuff, these quick, empty calories.

At the same time, it hasn't all been empty calories. I have reconnected with people I thought would be hopelessly lost to me forever, people who were once very important in my life. A girl I was best friends with, who helped me through the darkest days of Junior High. There are three of my closest friends from college, who helped to shape me in the deepest way I could imagine, practically on a cellular level, now in my life again, commenting on my strange little status reports, me commenting on theirs. We have the same style of interacting as we did twenty years ago, the same jokey personalities coming through, and all that time that has elapsed just seems to have melted away with a click of the return key. It's really amazing. And I get to stay current with my wonderful friends of today, though my inner-devil's advocate wonders how much I really need to stay updated: do I need to know about the latest latte? Will Facebook became a vehicle through which I can further disengage from the ones I love, giving me the illusion of companionship when our communications are really always just skimming the surface? The jury is out on that one. I say all this because I am genuinely trying to figure this stuff out. Of course, I am very glad to be in touch with my friends.

So my hope is that I figure out a way to live with Facebook in my life. Right now, I am getting more from it than it is taking away from me, so I will use that as an indication that I should keep up with it. In the meantime, I'll try to shave my skimming of status reports regarding toddler poop and the like down to a few seconds.

That's all for now.

Shalom, everyone.