As you might expect of someone born during World War II, I signed up for Facebook with reluctance knowing it would turn into a giant waste of time. It seemed that everyone in my family abandoned communicating by old fashioned mail for email and suddenly the email was turning into a Facebook post. I dipped my toe in the water and signed up. Next thing I knew I was signing in as a part of my morning information gathering routine.
Between you and me I was amazed at how many of these people I continued to visualize as a c cousinl’s kid had kids of their own; kids with names I didn’t recognize. Family was a core value to me and I was instantaneously becoming more aware of what was happening with all those folks who were part of my family. My once a year, or less often, participation in the annual family get together was replaced by a daily update on how Max was doing in his battle for life. Max was born several months ahead of schedule and weighed in at less than 2 pounds, but I was a part of the cheering squad.
My next step on Facebook was to fill in a lot of the requested information on my ‘personal profile’ page. It was amazing how many started finding me and wanting to be a friend; people I was friends with many years ago, but lost contact with over time. Paul and Angela Warner from the Rotary Club of East Los Angeles disappeared from my radar several years ago and suddenly they were once again part of my collection of Rotary friends. I was amazed to see that they had moved to Alaska and were living within a few miles of a town where I spoke at a district conference a few years ago. Too bad Facebook hadn’t reconnected us then.
I place a high level of value on sitting at a different table every time I attend a Rotary meeting with the intent of meeting new people and learning new things. Suddenly my Facebook was filling with new people with interest I didn’t know they had. Reading some post are truly a waste of time, but the nice folks who invented the computer keyboard included and delete key. And yes some of my friends turned into irritating pest, but the folks at Facebook have a simple process for anonymously unfriending selective pest.