So, like many others (allegedly 50 000 in Edinburgh, which I can’t quite believe), I joined Facebook…
It’s a good job I’m trying to do social emails etc at home only, because the temptation to go back on and see what’s changed is clearly quite strong. It’s a bit like a soap opera – but starring you and your friends! Genius.
I’m aiming for the gradual transition approach, which involves adding one new friend a day, and gradually getting used to some of the other functions. Today got more used to reading profiles of those who’ve agreed to be friends.
What was especially nice was seeing other people’s photos easily, particularly when these are people living in other countries from me. In some ways, you can feel involved in their lives again, just seeing the pictures. In other ways, it can feel a little sad – they’ve clearly been getting on fine, and those lives that were quite entwined at university time soon alter as people marry, move away…and one way or another, move on from the selves they used to be. It’s very normal, no doubt, but a little disconcerting to see it so clearly through someone’s profile.
However, the whole point of doing the Facebook thing was to get back in touch with people, and that does seem to be going OK. As with Friends Reunited before it, the people you’d really like to find out about are not on Facebook either (a couple of key school friends), but these things are never going to do everything for you.
There is a temptation to spend a lot of time making up new ‘Alison is…’ comments, but I will ration myself, honest. One friend has clearly done well for himself in this respect – his one liners would not go amiss on late night BBC2 arts documentaries. And when Facebook rises to such heights, it can’t be all bad.