Yes, I have been sucked into the Facebook fad, like just about everyone else in the blogosphere.  If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry. You just own more of your soul than much of the global population.  It’s simply a network to connect with people you know and have known in the past.  This is a nice idea. The problem is two-fold.

1) I don’t want to be one of those people who simply adds every person I can find that I’ve known at some point in my life, whether the relationship was basically superficial or very meaningful.  I have a list of a number of people that I really am interested in connecting with. Much to my chagrin, I realized that some of these people aren’t even on Facebook. But the way the phenomenon is spreading I figure it’s just a matter of time.   But I feel pressured to add “friends” to my list so that I can prove how truly cool I am, despite the fact that I was the consummate geek through most of my years in school.  But should any of my former accquaintances stumble across my profile I want them to be impressed with how popular I am.  Which brings me to my next point.

2) Facebook is (in the words of my husband) “permissive voyeurism”.  We want to find out what our classmates have done with their lives. We want to know if they have become successful, if they have families, if they are in relationships, what their sexual orientation is. We want to know who is still trailer trash and who has overcome their humble beginnings. Apparently we even want to know what music they listen to and what movies and books they love.  Why does this matter?  Well, I expect it’s so we can satisfy our judgmental nature and feel superior. The problem is that it’s backfiring for me.  I’m spying on connecting with people who have gone to prestigious schools and have interesting and complicated careers.  I’m feeling like the loseWeight Exerciser because I have not finished a degree and am a plain, old mommy.  You all know that I really believe motherhood is a wonderful and important job.  And I certainly would not say that anyone who chooses to stay at home with their kids was wasting their life. (Nor would I say the opposite about moms who choose to go back to work, so just relax!)  But somehow I feel that I have not done enough with my life.  That I should have come farther.  See what I mean? Facebook.  The devil.  It’s the truth.

And on top of these two points, it’s frickin’ taking up waaay too much of my time.  You can surf around Facebook, scrutinizing people’s lives for hours without accomplishing much of anything, besides a boost or slam to your ego.  A girl on my Friends List recently posted that she was in class on Facebook with her laptop and from the four computers she could see from her seat, THREE were open to Facebook!  Seriously, people!  It’s an addiction!  If you haven’t started Facebooking yet, take my advice, DON’T.