Holly is contemplating Facebook

A while back I joined Facebook in order to see the pics that my sisters--who live 12 hours by car and free minutes only after nine o'clock (which, in my two-kids-under-two-years-induced stupor, I can barely stay awake for) away--have posted, and yanno, keep up on their lives.

For those of you who don't have Facebook, it's kind of like, hey, I haven't heard from that person in a long time, or wow, those are cute pics of the new baby.  With all of the status updates, it's a little like SIMS in that you know what all of your friends are doing at any given time, minus the gibberish tantrums the characters throw when they aren't getting enough love, of course. 

And sometimes that too.

In other words, it's kind of fun, uuuunnnnnntillllllll the Facebook gods drop someone into your current life from your past that you still find goosebumpingly creepy.  Then your heart starts racing, your mind starts whirling, and you wonder, like the eye of Sauron, if I can see them, can they see me?  

And that's not the only weird situation that Facebook orchestrates.  

In my mind I totally understand that my friends have other friends.  But when I see their actual conversations, my hackles raise a bit.  I'm not proud of it, but I kind of wish that the lives of my friends would pause when we're not together.  And that they would be sitting at home, bored out of their minds without me.  Or if not, that they're at least chuckling about some memory of us.

Also?  I feel guilty looking through my "friends list" because I have been really bad about keeping in touch with people who were really good friends at one time.  Maybe Facebook should categorize the "friends list" into, "really, really close friends," "friends at one time," and, "I just added this one to increase my total number of friends so people are impressed when they see how many other people like me."

Of course, that really just adds pressure.  Kind of like the "relative" status.  This begs the questions, "Do I limit relatives to biology, or add close friends to this list? If I add close friends, but not other friends, will feelings be hurt?"  And then of course I have to see if I was added to their relative lists.  And then nurse my hurt feelings.

And another thing.  Seriously, how many quizzes can one take?  In one day?  And then post?

I know there's someone out there who knows what all these things mean, but it's not me.

Admittedly, I am curious about what my birth requests.  And what a superpoke is. 

BUT, it is fun to take a peek into the lives of relatives, friends, those who are merely added to increase my friendworth, creepy people who should stay in the past, and chronic quiz takers.   Even if it does elicit weird emotions and stalkerish tendencies.