So, about Facebook...

Sure, I happen to be one of those who embraced Facebook. All it took was a couple of invites, and I was hooked. And -- surprise!--I am still at it. My day is not complete without logging into Facebook and checking updates. Live updates.

On days when I try to deny my Facebook dependence, I check my Email inbox... to check on Facebook notifications. Then there's no beating around the bush from there. I click on the nearest link that'll take it to my fix for the day. The hour.  Ok, no --  the moment.

I fell in love with Facebook because of the wonder of connection and reconnection it provided.  Long-lost X's of all kinds.  I got a thrill with every notification that an old friend had found me.  Even our clan's egroup has dwindled down to personal messages. News and photos go directly to Facebook. Can I even count the many times I've thanked God for Facebook?!  Not to mention the times I swore and believed with all my heart that FB was made for people like me: 



People who failed to stay in touch.  People who didn't keep up with correspondence (oh, hey, but I did write letters.  Just never actually mailed them). People who have just too much on their plate to remember to drop a line or two, greet on birthdays, or maintain an address book or email address books. FB was made for people who are better at keying-in "reply" over "compose" in eMails.

I started to amass this enormous group of friends, and even had the convenience of bunching them up in categories so I won't experience that problem one gets when hosting just one party for all friends from all areas of one's life. I grew to depend on the bonus of birthdays and staying-in-touch reminders. 

Now, I must confess, as my initial FB fever has died down to a nice warm and comfortable habit, I am still somehow addicted. It has become a part of my daily existence, undeniably, but to a certain degree, I have fallen into a pattern that allows me to take a step back and better appreciate it for its ups and downs.  I believe I can now be a bit more objective about certain life facts FB has forced me to face and accept.  Here are my top five:

You cannot be friends with everybody the same way.  Not everyone is privy to your bikini-clad photos or status updates. That's why you have a "professional" self and a "private life" self.  You can imagine how I welcomed the newly- improved security and privacy settings that the group behind my favorite habit have introduced.

It has become very challenging to be politically correct at all times. For starters, once your boss or client or aunt (in my case, a parent) asks to be your friend, how can you say no?!  When you're invited to a cause that makes sense even if you are lukewarm about it, how can you say no?

There is no freedom of expression.  How can you state that you have just come home from the worst party ever, when a friend of a friend who comments could be the host of the said party and never talk to you again?!  How can you rant about an annoyance without stepping on others' toes?

Facebook helps you stay in touch, re-connect, catch-up, even poke each other a couple of times, get them a drink, bless them with positive thoughts, gift them with designer shoes, then (!) the back-and-forth replies fizzle from, "OMG, how have you been?!" to the point where you won't really get to see updates unless you deliberately seek that long-lost friend through the 'search' tab. That friend who is now simply a "contact".  Then you remember why you lost touch in the first place.

Facebook is the best place for games.  And it can get competitive.  Very competitive. After a quick read on some friends' lamentations, declarations, discoveries, gushing (you get it, don't you?), I go straight to my fave game of the moment and get lost in the wonderful world of oblivion.  Sadly, even in the seemingly safe area of games, which can start as ice breakers with long-lost friends, communication can get awkward once the competition gets fired up.

What has Facebook come to mean in your lives?