Facebook takes up a lot of my time, usually. Except that I go through extended periods of time where I hardly spend any time on it at all. With the advent of Twitter, even less time gets spent on Facebook, mostly because the people I’ve connected with via Twitter are so different than the people I allow on my Facebook status. Facebook is considered by me to be my “private” network, whereas Twitter is anything but. I allow myself to follow authors whose work I enjoy reading, people in my neighborhood who may have heard of me through my writing or just people who say interesting, funny things. Because who really doesn’t like to laugh?
But in actuality, how important to our lives is Facebook? I honestly couldn’t dream of not having it now and peeking into the lives of people I hardly ever see, most not by choice but by proximity. For instance, I do not see my cousins very often as they live down south, but I can and do keep in contact with them via Facebook. And it is great for the family too. I can pass along news seamlessly, and have the most recent up-to-date information, so I feel somewhat more connected to them. There are some days when I ask myself if it is all a grand illusion, if I am not really more connected to people because of it, but then I have to ask myself if I would be able to talk to people as freely as I do when I’ve known some things they’ve done or talked about. And honestly, I wouldn’t be as open. I wouldn’t talk to my cousin about something other than her daughter and her family life if not for Facebook.
We live in a different, exciting time. Things are changing so fast as we struggle to keep up with all the changes. What do you think, is Facebook really worth it?
