I grew up in a small town. You know, the kind where you have watching eyes seeing every (good or bad) move you make? I’m sure some of you know what I am talking about.
I left for college and with the exception of the summer of my freshman year never looked back. Until now. Facebook has (like it or not) reunited me with old friends and classmates.
I have been surprised. Of course, there are the strange people “friending” me, and those that I would have rather not “friended”, but in retrospect, it’s been nice. I’ve gotten back in touch with lost classmates. Like the shy kid with the witty status updates that make me laugh when I am drinking my morning coffee. Or, that I have several common interests with the classmate voted “most likely to be pregnant before she graduates” (No, I didn’t win that illustrious title). And, when it was reunion time we had an impromptu reunion solely using the social networking site.
When tragedy strikes, news spreads ridiculously fast. As you can guess, Facebook is like crack for gossip kings and queens. Deaths, miscarriages, burning buildings and near fatal car wrecks are reported faster than a blinking eye. Of course, it is a little disturbing to have (almost) complete strangers up in your business decades later, but in a different way because you have some sort of control of the flow of information…sometimes. I’m still leery of intentions, though. I constantly wonder if people really care or if they have an agenda. But, I guess growing up in a small town, the whole “I GOTTA KNOW thing is in our blood. I mean, you are practically brothers and sisters with these people you interacted with every day of the school year since you were five, or ten in my case. With Facebook, arch high school enemies are no longer at each other throats, cliques are nearly non-existent, socio-economic barriers are minimal…not to mention you don’t have to LIVE in it. I keep waiting for everyone to join Mary Poppins in a chorus of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious before the fight song. YAH!
