So....Facebook...

 Angel's #1 favorite profile picture of himself.

Lately I've been hearing about a lot of people I know who are deactivating Facebook. This doesn't surprise me terribly. I remember some months ago Angel and I decided that, most likely, in another couple of years, Facebook will be totally obsolete and everybody will be onto some new form of online friendship.

Those who I've heard of deactivating Facebook have good reasons for it. Facebook, to them, is boring. Or else it takes too much time. Perhaps, they don't actually like their Facebook friends, or, one that I've heard often is that they really don't like seeing pictures from their friends' lives and reading about what they've been up to lately. Or else, they don't enjoy allowing their Facebook friends to read too much about their own lives--they prefer to keep things private.

For now, I'm on the other side of the Facebook dilemma. Facebook is the first "social network" I was ever on (I'm too young for Myspace or anything that came before), and I really love the fact that because of Facebook, I can see what my friends and family all over America and on the other side of the world are doing.

We're so modest.

I've had a very international lifestyle. I haven't seen my Dad or four of my sisters in nearly three years. My parents don't put pictures on FB all that often--but I sure get to see a lot more of how much my siblings are growing up without me than I would if my parents had to go to all the work of attaching individual pictures to emails, that I know for sure! Some of my friends on that side of the world have gotten married or had babies since I've been gone, and it means so much to me to be able to get glimpses into these big moments of their lives even when I can't physically go home and be there for them. There's a couple baby girls I can't wait to finally meet when I go home, but in the meantime, I've been able to see them grow from infants to toddlers on Facebook (Shiloh and Anna, I'm talking about you!)

I never was a big "status update" person, and I've probably become even less of one than I used to be, ever since I started blogging. I still put pictures on Facebook that I consider more appropriate for my friends and family to see than the entire world, and I also tell certain stories on there that no one here knows about (ooooh...secrets....). When Angel and I were courting, we never lived in the same area, so Facebook has a lot of records of our early interactions. Mostly, it has a lot of records of him writing really bizarre "Christian pick up lines" on my wall, such as, "You are so unblemished I would sacrifice you."

 And I still married him.

Well, at least Facebook allowed me to know how strange my husband really was before I was hooked to him for life. Through Facebook, I've gotten to know a lot more about the brother-in-law and sister-in-law that I've never spent time with in real life, and that helps me to get excited about their upcoming trip to stay with us (otherwise it's hard to get excited for the visits of guests who you don't know personally) And I know they tend to read my blog, too, so....

Hi Nestor and Brittany! You're being watched!

There are most definitely things I don't like about Facebook. I avoid their "location" feature with great diligence, and I rarely "like" any pages unless I consider the "liking" absolutely necessary. After all, I did "like" The Random Writings of Rachel. I refuse completely to accept any friend requests from young teenagers, even when the young teenagers are related to me. I don't think that the average 13,14, or 15 year old knows how to use Facebook well, and I refuse to get involved in the phenomenon of them creating a not-very-promising and extremely-hard-to-delete online reputation for themselves at such a young age.

I think for me, the key is that I'm actually interested in the lives of the people I friend on Facebook, and I feel no obligation whatsoever to respond to friend requests from people I'm not interested in. I just checked--I currently have 20 un-responded-to friend requests. A large number of them from young teenagers I know and love. And one from a dog belonging to my in-laws. I do not support animals on Facebook either.

I love my Facebook friends in real life, and for that reason, I enjoy reading statuses about the latest funny thing that my little cousins said, or pictures of a recent vacation that my friends went on. A lot of people say, "Just make a phone call!" if you want to keep in touch...but that doesn't work well for me. For one thing, international phone calls are very expensive, and my cell phone won't make them, even with a calling card. I don't know why. But the main thing is....I'm extremely awkward on the telephone. Meet me in real life, and I'm a normal human being. On a keyboard, I'm eloquent. But try to get me to talk to you on the phone....I'd almost rather go to the dentist. The only people I'm truly comfortable talking to on the phone are Angel, my Mom, or my sister. I'm that bad at phones, and maybe that's part of the reason I enjoy Facebook so much.

What's your main reason for either having or not having Facebook?