Facebook and Friends

I've been interested lately in  the impact that Facebook may be having on friendship.  Unlike Myspace, it seems that Facebook is a way to connect with people that you actually already know in one capacity or another  For me, it provides an easy way to share photos and information.  It also allows me to "passively" keep in touch with people with whom I may not otherwise share frequent emails or telephone calls but who I still care about to one degree or another. 

The interesting problem, though, is who exactly do I know?  Assuming I know a person, do I really want to be friends on Facebook?  

Unless you are a salesman, politician, or entertainer, the value of Facebook diminishes as you get too many friends.    After all, being friends entails getting (in some cases) multiple updates on the daily details of their life.  Do I really need to now that the dude I hung out with for a few weeks back in 1998 is sick today?  Or even worse, that he is doing great on some trivia quiz?

So this all creates some difficult decisions when I get a friend request.  One of the hardest decisions concerns people that I know now or sort of know now.  This category of person is somebody that I actually see on a regular basis for whatever reason.  By adding him as a friend today, it almost seems that I'm committing to following his daily updates for the rest of my life.  Perhaps the standard procedure will be to quietly drop the friendship after not being in regular contact for a few years.  On the other hand, it may still be good to have some sort of link to that kind of person going forward, especially if we are in the same profession or have a lot of mutual friends.

Another dilemma is what to do with the person you sort of knew years ago.  Yes, we went to school together years ago.  But we were not even really friends then.  Is there a sufficient basis to be "friends" now for the first time just based on the common experience and perhaps mutual friends?  In this situation, it at least helps if the friend request has a message to go with it.  Otherwise, it is this almost creepy agreement to open myself up to your voyeurism (photos, updates, contact information) in exchange for the same -- looking at each other through a double blind window (if such a thing exists).  

I should disclaim that although some of the friend requests have been close calls both ways (both accept and reject), and I've been fairly limited with respect to the people that I'll allow into my Facebook life.  I'm happy with the friends that I have (and there are still many real life friends who I hope will join Facebook).   It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out in the years and decades to come, and what my reaction will be to finding out that the dude I met at a conference in 2002 reached a new level in the Nickelback trivia game.   

Nothing to Do

With the election over, I'm not sure what to do with myself.  Even right now, I'm watching football.  That ought to be enough, but I've become accustomed to multitasking with the TV going and the laptop on the coffee table.  So right now, the commercials are playing and I've nothing to look at on the internet.  

Rush and Sean and the Rest

I spend a lot of time listening to talk radio. Most of what is available is the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity sort of stuff. During this last election season, much of the Republican message was generated by talk radio. Whether it was Ayers, ACORN, socialism, or Barack Obama wanting to bankrupt the coal industry, I always heard about it first on talk radio. Talk radio is the most influential conservative think tank and the primary Repub election strategist.

On the one hand, I suppose, that is a compliment to talk radio. On the other hand, I wonder if the Repub's reliance on talk radio as a source of new ideas is really hurting them. Certainly, there are intelligent, thoughtful conservatives such as David Brooks or George Will. Ronald Reagan and the conservatives ruled the 1980s on the strength of their ideas. They won in 1994 based on ideas -- the old Contract with America. But talk radio deals in broad generalizations concerning their own ideas, and mostly caricature or outright distortions of their opponents. Mostly, they attack liberals or any Repub. who is not like them (i.e., Rush today said "good riddance" at the loss of Repub. Chris Shays). They work themselves into a frenzy, and they begin to remind most Americans of their crazy old uncle who used to think that the government controlled the weather and who kept gold coins in his basement. Don't you think that is exactly how John McCain looked when he tried to compare Barack Obama to a socialist?

Republicans who are now searching their souls should search for leadership who will return them to ideas. And Sarah Palin probably does not fit that bill.