Facebooked again

My beloved cousin Mary has just added me as a friend on Facebook. I am "on" Facebook but not active. It requires more time and effort than I've got, perhaps. Recently I asked my students what pleasure they'd be willing to give up for Lent. The guys all said they would give up video games and the girls said Facebook. It would not be hard for me to give up Facebook. I'm rather sorry I ever even got guilted into joining by Mary Beth, especially since she stopped emailing me once she got on that social network.

My younger son is ill, and of course, as a mother, I'm worried about him. Now that he's divorced, there is no one to check on him and report to me if he gets sicker. And now that he's divorced, he has no health care coverage, since that came from her job. He works only part-time so I doubt he's got any coverage of his own.

I still haven't heard any more about Marty T. Perhaps this summer I'll try to get over to see her.

I miss my friends. Facebook just isn't like really seeing people and hearing their voices and being able to hug them. I don't care much about the trivia of people's lives ("Today I bought eggs on sale at the grocery store"), and since most of us live lives that aren't especially dramatic or inspiring, most people don't have much to share except for photos. Just this morning on CBS Sunday Morning, the discussion was about data rot (their term): losing photographs, recordings, etc., because whatever technology was used has become obsolete, and there is no machine to play it back. That's why I like books, photo albums, and records, all of which appear to be going the way of the dodo, alas. But at a much slower rate than their electronic equivalents.

Of course, my blogs fall into the same categories of trivia about my life and technology that will become obsolete. The difference, I guess, is that I don't really write my blogs for anyone other than myself. If someone wants to read what I've written, that's their choice. I don't try to guilt people into reading what I write. One day I'll lose everything on my blogs that I've posted, and it will be a loss to me, but probably not to anyone else. I'm not so concerned that I'm going to go back and print out two years' worth of posts.

I guess I should try to find some cheese to go with my whine, eh?