Monday, February 17, 2014

My daughter strongly discouraged my entry into the Facebook world, convinced that viewing pictures of friends traveling the world and living high on the hog would send me into the depths of despair because I was stuck at home with Brett.

My mom joined Facebook early on and would often leave her page open at our house. Bob would get on it, doing what Caitlin and Dane called "creeping." He couldn't resist commenting either, "Hey there! It's your dad on Gramma's Facebook..."

One day I decided Bob should have his own Facebook account and took the liberty of signing him up. At some point I noticed he had more than a hundred friend requests he hadn't accepted. I told him (because I really believed that's how it worked) that all these people were getting messages that he didn't want to be their friend.

After enjoying hours of creeping, now he was indignant that I'd signed him up.

"Why did you sign me up in the first place? I'm in SALESDo you think I can afford to alienate hundreds of people?!?  All I wanted to do was look at Caitlin and Dane's stuff, and that was working out just fine going on your mom's."

Well! Talk about ingratitude! "How would I know you wouldn't want to be friends with people?" I huffed. "Why wouldn't you? That's the whole point!"

Anyway, ruffled feathers were smoothed, he became friends with lots of people and now he's an active member. He makes funny comments, "likes" all manner of things, wishes people happy birthday--the whole nine yards.

I finally joined after being advised that if I was serious about my dream to write, I needed to at least be vulnerable enough to post my blogs. Not that this necessarily meant people would read them, but it certainly opened up the possibility that someone might.

So I signed on and fell in love with it. Not that I'm immune to some of the rather paranoid, negative thinking that crops up on occasion...hmmm, so and so stopped liking my posts, maybe they don't like me anymore, or maybe they're just not on it anymore, but no I see they're liking other peoples' posts... I nip all that all kind of thinking in the bud, because really, AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.

Turns out, being on Facebook didn't make me feel stuck in my own little world, it expanded my world. I get a peek into lives I wouldn't otherwise get to peek into, and they get a peek into mine, as well. I love acknowledging accomplishments and milestones and celebrating new births. I love being reconnected with friends and family I haven't seen in decades, and making new connections.  I love looking at the pictures, marveling at how quickly time flies, incredulous our babies are having babies.  There are posts that have made me laugh out loud and some that have brought tears to my eyes.

But perhaps the most unexpected gift of Facebook has been the encouraging comments on my blogs, often from unexpected sources--and usually just when I needed it most. So, for all these reasons and more, I remain an unabashed fan of Facebook.