Where Worlds Collide

What are you doing right now? For many of us we look at that question everyday when we log into the latest online rage, Facebook.

That question, what are you doing right now, is so simple. I mean why would anyone care what I am doing right now? Who really cares what I am doing right now? Most of the time what I am doing isn’t that exciting…on the phone at work, trying to fix a cabinet drawer, eating an apple. To me, that question, what are you doing right now, seems a bit like the TV show, Seinfeld. Seinfeld was known as the show about nothing and so much of the time what I am doing at that very moment is, well nothing that exciting or exhilarating or worth sharing.

So, if I feel that way, why do I keep going back to Facebook?

I think I go back because it is messy. It is funny, it is sad, it is thought- provoking, it is a great big melting pot. It is a connecting, re-connecting communication tool. It is a layered, textured social experiment about who we are, who we were and who we want to be. It exposes me to people who think the way I do, so it reaffirms my way of thinking, yet it also exposes me to those that I sometimes disagree with so it often gives me pause to think. It is a Scheherazade thing. I go back because somebody might make me laugh or think or remember and at some level I crave one of those things.

It’s all these things because it’s more than just what you are doing right now. Because photos, stories and videos are shared, Facebook is also like visiting your family or your friends and having to endure the home movies or endless photo albums. The great thing though is you can look at such things if you choose to (and you will eventually) and on your own time. It isn’t like you are trapped on an uncomfortable sofa while your host changes the tray on the slide projector. So, even though you’ve haven’t seen an old friend in fifteen years and wouldn’t recognize their children, you will see enough photos, videos and comments about them in a matter of minutes to understand a little of what you’ve missed.

And then there are your friends. I am friends with some folks I know really well and others I know fairly well and some I barely know at all. I am friends with people I work beside and people I once worked beside. I am friends with relatives and in-laws. I am friends with college friends I haven’t seen in twenty years and I am friends with folks I only met a couple of years ago. It is a place where I am friends with some I wish I knew better and a place where I am proud to have others as my friend. It is a place where your family, close friends, good friends, friends, acquaintances and sometimes a stranger or two gather, to hang out with you. So, it is messy. It’s a high school/college/family/old work place reunion all rolled into one. It is the place where all your worlds may truly collide.

I mean where would all these people gather to hang out? Honestly, probably, hopefully, my memorial service. Frankly, some of those folks I count as Facebook friends wouldn’t, shouldn’t or couldn’t come then. So, I’ll pass waiting on that moment when all the worlds I know will collide and just log in to Facebook with the knowledge that when that moment does arrive, I might be nearby, but it won’t matter too much what I will be doing right then.