February 18, 2009

Peer Pressure Is An Ugly Thing...

I caved. I finally joined FB. Seven weeks ago "FB" was not a part of my shorthand lingo. But now I'm in. It sucked me in. The night I caved, I was on it for hours. Finding old friends, looking at pictures of what people have done since high school, tagging people on pictures. The works. Every time I had a friend request I was so psyched. Yay, another friend! Who is it now? I had friend requests from friends that I was certain hadn't given me a second thought since the 90s. It was all exciting.

How did it happen? It's all my brother's fault. I went to visit him and my sis-in-law for the holidays and they were "kind" enough to sit me down and give me a personal demonstration of FB. They showed how to tag people, how to send personal messages, chatting, all of it. Then I saw pictures of friends and family members that I thought I kept in good contact with. Nope. I missed all the baby pictures, all the work news, relationship news, doggy pictures, new house pics. Even my 60 something year old uncle was on it! That was it for me. I wasn't going to miss any more baby first steps, dogs dressed as Florida Gators, or kids making snowmen. (The Gators are the best football team out there, BTW.)

Now I can add one more thing of "quick things to do before I go to bed" list. I take a quick look at FB. But not without feeling guilty. I know that if I log on, I'll be sitting at my computer for a good minute. Between checking email, checking in on blogs, and FB, I can stay up pretty late. If I bring the laptop to bed I can just feel Hubby rolling his eyes at me. (He hates the laptop in bed.)

So now here I am, I just finished chatting live with a cousin that I probably would have not spoken to until next Christmas and a girlfriend that I don't really stay in contact with much. My cousin broke up with his girlfriend and my friend is 13 weeks preggers. Do you see all the stuff I would have missed out on?! Madness!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just joined last week and I may need an intervention! FB is truly addictive. The thing that trips me out is that were it not for FB, I wouldn't even have thought about some of these folks - now I'm constantly logging on to see who is doing what and when. Wanna be my friend? :)

Anonymous said...

I wrote about FB yesterday. Don't get it.

Felicia (aka Mommy B) said...

I started seriously FBing few weeks ago and I definitley feel you. It was actually scary how many times I'd log in and find people that I have't seen in 20 years or more. It's a trip!

At the same time, yes FB is a great networking tool, but how many times have you friended one of those "OMG, I haven't seen you in 20 years!" people and then gradually realized WHY you haven't spoken to that person in so long?

If you "de-friend" someone, will they find out? Just wondering? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah . . . I joined facebook because it's for old fogies . . . see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html . . . can't leave it alone! Even have the obligatory pothead old boyfriend in my friends!

Anonymous said...

Try that again . . . here's the url for the old fogies article -
http://www.time.com/time/
magazine/article/
0,9171,1879169,00.html

Unknown said...

I love Facebook and have been using it for 3 years now. At first I didn't "get" it and did not look for anyone. My friend from South Africa invited me to join and I did so that I could stay in contact with him. Now everyone is on it. "Friends" that are not friends at all and simply want to be nosy are requesting my friendship. So far it has been okay, I even opened it up to my bloggy friends that I have never met. I was reticent about that initially but now it is all good. I control how much each person sees so it is fine.

Speaking of Facebook - we need to be friends!

Justice Ny said...

I first started over the summer and when I first began I was on it constantly. I would log in at least four times at work and spend ridiculous amounts of time there. In fact, it got to a point that I felt that that was the only thing that I was doing during the day. I didn't get it at first, but it's just so addictive. Now...I'm venturing over to twitter. Fergie is already there so let's see what all that hype's about!!!

Justice Fergie said...

girl, who are you telling. between blogging, checking blogs, facebook'ing and tweeting, my evenings are SHOT. and hubby despises the laptop in the bed. he's taken to calling me "Pigeon." peck, peck, peck...

A Shorter Mama said...

I still haven't joined either. Not sure why, but I am scared I won't get anything else done! Between watching all my shows that I'd DVR'd, trying to catch up on my scrapbooks, staying on top of home life, and blogging which I haven't done in weeks...where would I find the time? I am a big ole 'fraidy cat.

www.JusticeJonesie.com/blog said...

LOL. For all of you thinking of joing, don't! It's addictive. For all of you that have joined, yes, let's be friends!!

Shelly- Mom Files said...

I love FB!! You can connect with me if you want Sheliza Ismail :) It is a great way to keep up with all the blog and Twitter folks too. I am a Facebook addict. I might start a group lol!

Kim Moldofsky said...

I joined FB and the end of last year. I'm with you- between blog, twitter and real life who has time for that? And yet, like you, when I spend time there, I realize I do catch up with my friends.

I struggle with the odd intersection of real life and all my blog friends/online life, though.

Overall, I don't know what to make of FB.

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