Alright, so I’m not on Facebook or Myspace or any other social networking site. Am I still a worthy human being?
Facebook is so ridiculously popular here in Canada that it’s a bit strange being the only one who isn’t a member. Why have I held out? I’ve portrayed myself as an anti-social-networking curmudgeon to the people who’ve asked, but the truth is that I don’t have many friends, either in the present or from my past, and I’m ashamed of it. It’s just that much more sad when I compare the number of people that I could possibly get into contact with on Facebook with my wife.
I don’t know that anyone who isn’t a top-tier blogger is quite as plugged-in to Facebook as my wife. She’s on Facebook, and she has hundreds of friends. She was extremely social when she was in high-school, mostly because at one time or another she had a crush on or dated just about every guy in her school (you think I’m joking, don’t you?) All of those high school friends are now her Facebook friends. She was similarly social when she went to university and over the years she’s met a huge coterie of fellow students who’ve all joined her online. Even her job exposes her to more people than mine does – she works in an overwhelmingly male-dominated workplace so she stands out among her co-workers, and she interacts with a large number of people both in her day-to-day routine and on her business trips.
The funny thing about my wife is that she claims that she’s anti-social. As far as I can tell, she’s actually one of the most outgoing people that I’ve ever known. When she was growing up, she had a courage to go out and do things that I just didn’t have.
At any rate, I just can’t bring myself to get on to Facebook and let everyone know just how uneven we are. That stupid ‘# of friends” counter is a painful reminder of the sad life I lived even just five years ago. It says to anyone who visits, “this man was a shut-in who couldn’t make friends and knows little about other people.”
