Facebook

I've been thinking a lot about facebook today, partly because it's going public (you know, public in a different way than it already is) and partly because I have such a love/hate relationship with it.

Here's the love part. I love seeing how friends and family are doing. It's like getting a little snapshot of the inside of their heads. Also, I might not know some things if it weren't for facebook. For instance, I might not have remembered it's Viv's birthday today, even though I love Viv and think about her often.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VIV!

Here's the hate part. I start looking at it . . . and then I keep on looking and looking and looking and looking, and before you know it, 45 minutes of my life has been sucked out of my soul and into cyberspace. One of my former students complained that now she's on fb, she doesn't read books as much as she used to, which strikes her as semi-tragic.

Ironically, I read this on her facebook wall.

Your thoughts?

Facebook

My editor at the Trib has asked me to have a fairly active facebook presence under the paper's umbrella, so that's up and running now. Feel free to visit it if you have the inclination and push the "like" button, because that will make the IT people happy. I do have a personal fb account which I rarely visit. Mostly I opened it to torture my children and to spy on them whenever I feel like it. YES, CHILDREN! YOUR MOTHER SPIES ON YOU! I may take down that profile down--I can barely stop on top of my cyber life as it is.

HOWEVER, I will keep blogging. Even though this isn't a private blog, I feel like I'm among my friends here. I always enjoy your comments, and I love checking out your blogs, too, even though I don't always comment. This blog is a bit of a writing refuge for me, so thanks for that.