A Facebook Confession

I recently joined Facebook. Even as I was filling out the information to start an account, I wondered 'why?'.

I guess I was hoping to reconnect with a few friends from high school, curious to see what they've been up to.

I was unprepared for the sheer number of people I would encounter.

Or the fact that, frankly (whispering), I don't remember many of them. The names are familiar, especially after I see them over and over in the "Friends You May Know" section. But honestly, I don't have clear memories of the majority of these people.

Every time I see a marginally familiar name, I wonder to myself "Should I remember you better? Did we hang out? Did we ever eat lunch together? Were we 'school friends' but not friends in real life? Did I have a mad crush on you that I am still marginally embarrassed about? Were we frenemies?"

I. Can't. Remember.

So most school friends I see, I don't "request to be their friend" on Facebook. Sure, times have changed and even if there was love or hate involved in high school, I see few reasons to ratchet up my FB friends for the sake of amassing a collection. And that's what FB seems to be to - just a narcissistic, self-promoting, popularity contest.

I've found most of the people I wanted to be in touch with, so I'm just going to fade into the background a bit more, and let the friend tourists carry on.

fyi - Friend Tourist is a term we use in my house to label someone who has to be in constant contact with many, many acquaintances but actually has very few to no good friends. Big Daddy and I are both the type to have just a spare handful of good friends, and a double handful of acquaintances we keep in contact with.