I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. It's no secret.
It keeps me connected with friends who live afar off, especially overseas.
It allows me to stay in touch with my cousins, see their kids, and celebrate their birthdays and accomplishments.
It introduces me to some nuanced and innovative thinkers I might not have connected with before (but not nearly as well as Twitter does).
It helps me market my book. So it's practical too.
It also causes worlds to converge that perhaps might never should.
People overlap from various phases of my life.
You know, the ones who think they know you today because they knew you 25 years ago, and they place who they thought you were then on to whom you really are now.
Presuming to think they really know you, they post and offer feedback on how they think you should believe. They then engage with significant players in this phase of your life in not the most gracious ways.
Online fail.
That's the part of Facebook I hate.
Those bits I navigate.
With great care and compassion.
And sometimes with delete.
Rarely, unfriend.
And when absolutely necessary, block. Because not everything is that person's business.
I believe that online communities should be safe, emotional spaces and if that safety is violated, adios baby.
Facebook knows no boundaries. It's up to us to make and maintain them.
Such are our lives in the 21st Century.
So here's to my love/hate relationship with Facebook!
The Facebook Sonnet by Sherman Alexie
Reunion. Welcome to past friends
And lovers, however kind or cruel.
Let's undervalue and unmend
The present. Why can't we pretend
Every stage of life is the same?
Let's exhume, resume and extend
Childhood. Let's all play the games
That preoccupy the young. Let fame
And shame intertwine. Let one's search
For God become public domain.
Let church.com become our church.
Let's sign up, sign in and confess
Here at the altar of loneliness.
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