Ten years soon passes in the midst of an interesting life. A circle of friends may be broken while each searches for who/what/where they are meant to be, but as equilibrium emerges, they seek each other out again, and it’s almost like they have never been away. Many friendships are reaffirmed courtesy of Facebook.
Some people love the phone. I don’t. I don’t usually ring people unless there is a problem. Or it’s my mum and I haven’t spoken to her in three months. When I do get on the phone, I can be on there for hours – hours I could be doing more stuff in. So I have friends I don’t speak to much, still wonderful friends and key characters in my life, but they are all distinctly ‘low maintenance’. I see them when I see them and we have a ball. Little brother Sam is a good example: I might see him once every second year for a couple of weeks, and it is the best craic ever. High maintenance people are substantially less interesting!
As a fan of low maintenance, Facebook is great, as I can see what 40 friends are up to in the space of a few minutes, maybe chat to whoever is online and touch base with ones I haven’t spoken to in a while, check their latest pics, see what they have been seeing, and I can do that whenever I have a few minutes to spare.
Despite its convenience, many people are vehemently anti Facebook. What is not surprising is that the most vocal have never given it a try themselves. This the way of things, certainly in Britain.
I once wrote a column on how the voice of experience is not always the voice of “the people.’ It hung off the fact that most objectors to the topless Porsche 911 Targa – those who moaned that it was far too imprecise due to having a hole where a roof would be on a Coupe – had never driven the thing. Though they had memorised all the arguments put forward by generations of macho magazine commentators, they had not taken time enough to actually experience it for themselves, and form a balanced opinion based on experience. They did not like the car because of what they perceived liking it would have said about them, not of what it said for itself. The same is true of many attitudes in the UK – towards Jonathan Ross, Polish builders and Facebook, to name but a few. “If enough tabloid spacefillers say it, it must be true, ergo that is my opinion.”
Worse still is the 2 second snapshot that scares many off – satellites take longer to compose an image than some people. “I logged on to Facebook and was contacted by someone who lived 5 miles away”, said a friend of mine. “I thought that was silly, so I stopped using it.” What is sillier, being mortified by local people finding you on Facebook (a site many oldies see as “for the kids”), or running away from an opportunity to retain and maintain friendships in a way that dovetails perfectly with the demands of time-poor modern day life?
If you’re on the ‘Net, get yourself on Facebook. Select the people you really want to keep up with, and ignore the rest. Sorry to offend acquaintances I have not added to my friends list, but I want to use the site to keep up with people I stand a chance of seeing once in a while! Find your friends and enjoy their virtual company in between bouts of the real thing. It’s all good fun.
The Impact Bumpers Facebook Group is here. My page is here – please get in touch if you want to keep in touch!
