Too Much Information

I seem to have lots of friends - at least according to Facebook. It tells me I have a whopping 100 friends and encourages me to find new ones all the time by letting it have access to my email contact list. (Facebook's incessant desire to access my contacts reminds me of the insurance salesman's constant pleading for names and phone numbers. There is no chance of either of those things ever happening! )

The truth of the matter is that I have nowhere near 100 friends; and most of the people I consider my closest friends are not counted among that 100. I don't recall ever having "requested" to be someone's friend on Facebook. I rarely deny a Facebook request from someone I know, but I am not out to run up my friend count thereby tainting the meaning of the word friend by requesting every casual acquaintance to link to me on Facebook.

I don't mean to belittle those people who celebrate their thousands of Facebook friends. In fact, there was a period of time when having a large number of Facebook friends was somehow determined to be a badge of honor. I just don't see it.

Social media has changed much about the way we live. Some of it, I admit, has been good. It allows us to keep up with important life events that we might otherwise miss. For example, Facebook allows me to see an ultrasound of a friend's new baby that I would probably never have been able to enjoy without it merely because of the distance between us.

Unfortunately, it also bombards me with every meaningless stop along the path of life that other "friends" seem determined to record for all posterity. I have hidden all posts from several of my Facebook "friends" just because I grew tired of their propensity to generate massive numbers of posts that fill my screen but tell me nothing.

Just for the record; I really don't care to see your painted toenails or a link to every book, magazine, video or article you have seen. Nor do I care to have my screen filled up with political statements, social statements or rantings. These things virtually guarantee a click on the "Hide All Posts From..." link. I'm sure I end up missing some posts that I would truly enjoy because of it, but I'll take that risk in an effort to avoid the constant clutter.

Most of all, though, social media seems to have actually caused us to become less social and certainly less thoughtful about our communication with others. We no longer truly communicate; we merely proclaim - ready to attack those who disagree. People seem to feel free to post things that they would never say to or about another person if they were to speak the words instead of merely tap them out on a keyboard.

I may be the only one, but I wish the social graces would make an appearance on social media.