Finally social?

Guess what? After years of resistance, I have finally joined in the global social virtual network called facebook. A moment of weakness during Friday morning brunch with a friend (who had already tried several times before to seduce me into this endless pool of friends and strangers) and before I even realized WHAT I was doing, I had typed in my email, created a password and send out the news to 50 people from my address book (with the results that I now have over ten new-old friends).

Though I am now part of it, I remain sceptical. For several reasons. First, the big question to me is: do I really want to be connected to the world? I actually feel quite cosy in my own little world, with a few people I really care about. The second big question: do I actually WANT to know whats going on in the life of other people? Personally, I do appreciate a bit of privacy, and try to apply the same to the people I know. It seems that we are voluntarily subscribing ourselves to surveillance. Thirdly, how much real conversation can one actually have on facebook? It allows one to get superficial information about the where and who, but how much real talk do you have? Except the occasional message? The occasional uploading of party pictures? Forth, how much personal can you make your profile? I don't like the idea of presenting myself to the world with the same tools millions of other people are using.

I do respect everybody who is happy with the way facebook allows us to keep up friendships. But I don't think that it is the way I would like to communicate to the ones I care about.

Maybe it's wrong NOT to feel a desire to be connected to all the ones I ever met. In many ways, I am connected to them, or at least those I wish to be conneted to. In my mind. Even if I do not see them, hear them, talk to them, they are there. The ones I met and care about, will always be part of me, even if I never see them again in life. And sometimes, I think, its best to remember people the way you met them, not the way they developed. Remember them and the unique moments when I was with them.

So, concluding, call me antisocial if you want, but I think that facebook is not my way of socializing :)