No, seriously. I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how my life is better because of Facebook. (No, this is not a paid advertisement :0)
Now, I'm talking Facebook and not just the internet/www. We started with AOL and email back in 1994 and it was amazing, but it didn't really change my life much other than making it more instantaneous to connect with people. My letters to Brian overseas went much much faster! Basically though, I emailed pretty much the same people I would have called or sent handwritten letters, and so many people didn't have email that I continued to do that for most of our family anyway.
After the 1990's we were in Iceland (2000-2003) and email became a much bigger deal then. Letters took way too long and phone calls were expensive. Plus, to have a taste of home we began using the web more. We googled a lot for information, tv shows, and even ventured into Myspace briefly. My email list got larger and I had quite a few people following my emails about our adventures on The Rock.
Facebook, however, has blown all that out of the water. I love it. I couldn't imagine my life without it. I am a voyeur by nature; I love to read journals and letters written by other people and I love going through other people's photo albums and medicine cabinets. Now I can do it all from the comfort of my little netbook!
I find I am 'friends' with many more people than I would normally have the energy to maintain contact with. Now, I say 'friends' because they're mostly acquaintances - people who I know and who have a general knowledge of me mostly based on a past vague relationship of circumstances or geography. I may not know much about them, but I truly do care and find their lives almost as fascinating as my own. :0) I enjoy knowing what is going on in their lives and don't mind giving them a peek into mine. I may not have the energy or want to go out of my way to meet up with them in person, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy our brief time together online.
I love that I can keep up with so many people from my school days. There are quite a few I even wish that I lived closer to so we could have a real relationship that was more than a few lines of type and pictures posted.
I love that I can keep up with the friends we've made while in the military. We have all moved on from the places we may have originally met, I think without Facebook I would have lost the energy long ago to keep track of the additional moves and addresses of each one.
I love that I have reconnected with some of my family. I have relationships with cousins now that would probably never have surfaced without Facebook. We were not in contact sometimes because of age differences, but mostly distance from each other and opportunity to get together. I love that I can seen into what their lives are like and have found we have much more in common than just our blood lines.
I love that I feel more connected to our families. I love seeing pictures, reading their random thoughts and knowing what's going on in their lives. I like that I can respond to something said in just a few short sentences and then I know that they know that I was right there with them at that brief moment.
I love that I can now learn more about the people in my life who matter to me. I can read what my nieces and nephews are thinking and going through, teenagers who normally would not want me eavesdropping! :0)
I love that we can connect over things both silly and serious. A post about a tragedy, a rib about a football score, a joke, music videos/lyrics, a request for prayer. It all means so much in my day to day life now, I can't imagine life without it.
My nephew posted on his Facebook page awhile back that he had walked away and couldn't believe he left his computer window open with Facebook still logged on. I responded back.....
"You can log off of Facebook??"
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