I Feel A Little Dirty
June 17, 2009
I joined Facebook yesterday. Well, apparently I joined some time ago, did nothing with it, and deactivated my account. I guess that’s ambivalence for you.
After being urged by two different people this week, a cousin and a friend who lives across the country, I signed up for real, pictures and everything.
Which is fine and great, really. It’s what happens when you do a curiosity search on someone you went to high school with, check out their “friends” list, and realize that everyone you went to high school with has each other listed as friends in their facebook accounts.
I know, I know, this is the whole point of facebook, right? It’s just that it makes me feel so exposed. Sounds stupid since I have this blog, but I have relative annonymity here. A few family members know about it and some fellow bloggers, but it just feels different.
I guess it really has to do with how I feel about the people I went to high school with, and high school in general. Not a good time for me, not a place I look back upon fondly, for a whole myriad of reasons. Seeing all those people on there, all linked up to one another was simply unsettling. I know if I “friend” even one of them, I’ll eventually have the same list of faces in my own account. So–I didn’t friend any of them. I’m safe for now, only one of them knows my married name.
This is definitely probably a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” After all, these people are likely just as normal as the average person, are generally pretty nice, and don’t really overly care what’s going on in my life. However, I still happen to have a recurring nightmare that they won’t let me out of high school. So yeah. Me, not you.
It’s kinda like that episode of 30 Rock where Liz Lemon goes to her high school reunion and finds out that she was the jerk, not everyone else. Boy did I laugh at that. Here’s a clip from that episode, if you can get through the commercial, and some other Liz Lemon faves (does anyone else love this show?):
June 17, 2009 at 3:00 pm
High school was pretty awful for me. I still have the reoccuring nightmare that I didn’t pass Algebra II. No joke . . . so, the only people from HS that I have on my FB are the friends, mostly from my freshman year, that either moved away or that I shared Orchestra with. (Nerds rule the world!) I have turned down some friend requests because I just don’t consider some acquaintances “friends”, nor do I choose to share my personal life, even small amounts of it, with them. I also refuse to allow family members be a part of my FB account or blog, other than my brother or possibly a cousin or sister-in-law.
I added you yesterday, but haven’t had a chance to visit you via FB yet. I am at work now, but will look for you later. Maybe we can play Lexulous. It is SOOOO addictive . . .
June 17, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I felt the exact same way at first – but then after a whilr realized 1/2 the people are never on there.