The magical art of facebooking

Facebook, oh how I love thee…

Back in May when I signed up for Facebook, I did it ritually… another social network site that I had to be a part of, for, you know, networking. And what I thought was that I would be able to build upon my relationships with other bloggers and my reader community. Of course some of that did happen, I do communicate with some of my readers on a more personal level through Facebook, but what I didn’t expect, was that I would connect with many people from my “real’ life.

For the past months, I have been finding old friends, classmates, colleagues, even some of those not-too-fond-off acquaintances, and as I reminisce, my husband would roll his eyes and give me his look of complete disinterest. You see, up until last week, my dear husband had no interest in finding people from his past, “why would I want to find anyone”, he naively said, trying to convince himself, I think, because this past week, I have had to listen to many, many stories of the little geeky, indian boy and his thrilling childhood misadventures! Most of the time I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation! Ummm, sort of. Needless to say, I have not uttered another word about my past.

Nostalgia people, you gotta love it!

It’s a funny Facebook phenomenon, but although we first get in touch with classmates from college or high school, it seems that the ones from elementary school are the ones that we are most excited to catch up with! Is it the innocence of those friendships that we had at 7 and 8 years of age, that make them stand the test of time? Or is it because these are the people that knew us when we were at our best, before we developed “baggage”, before we became the flawed adults that we are? Or maybe it’s only because we’ve forgotten any of those very old wounds, that clearly pale in comparison to caring for a sick child, or losing a loved one?

The most amazing part though, must be the new friendships that are emerging, and blossoming, with people I’ve only just met, or with other bloggers, but especially with old classmates who I’ve overlooked growing up, and are now so thankful to have in my life!

Ah, the magic of Facebook!

Thoughts from Amanda

I am so glad you have reconnected with old friends and made new ones, that can be hard in today’s world. I am unfortunately anti-Facebook as they have deemed the images of breastfeeding women obscene. This alone wouldn’t bother me, we are all entitled to our beliefs, but as a mother of two daughters the fact that they abide the publication of pro-anorexia sites is simply unconscionable.

Thoughts from shaz

Thanks for letting us know Amanda… there’s a breast-feeding petition group on facebook and as far as I can tell facebook has been pretty responsive with the petitions that have surfaced. I didn’t know about “pro-anorexia” sites though, thanks for keeping us informed!

Thoughts from Haleem

Haha about the old friends things - you won’t believe how many old childhood friends I found there - some are now in places as far away as Uganda and Brazil!

Facebook is truly a great application. But sometimes, I wonder at the implication of all that information gathering.

Thoughts from Organic Muslimah

I found all my Egyptian childhood friends. It was great to see them as adults, but things got quiet again after the excitement died. We no longer have anything in common. We’ve moved on. Sometimes it’s best to leave the past untouched.

Thoughts from shaz

Haleem - yes, I wonder about that too!

Organic - well, it is true that with 99% of the childhood friends that we get back into contact with, there is no communication after the initial couple conversations, but there is 1% that really connect and I think that’s worth it!