Wil you be my friend?

Okay, I admit it! My curiosity has gotten the better of me once again....spending time with my recently graduated daughter, home for Thanksgiving, has exposed me to some of her world. Facebook? My Space? It is all so complicated. Since when do you have to create a virtual environment in which to "hang out" with people who are your"friends?" And since when do you have to invite people to be your friends? It reminds me of the playground at school, maybe when I was 5 or 6 and there were groups of kids playing on the monkey bars and you would think to yourself...."I want to play with them!" And you could just run over and join them and see if they accepted you..but you knew you were in trouble if they ignored you and ran off to the next piece of playground equipment and left you hanging upside down by yourself.

So I was curious..and I checked it out, because I don't get it....so I may have clicked on things I didn' t mean to and now I must wait and see what happens...like the playground. Not that I am worried...really...but when you don't know what you're doing it can be a bit stressful.

I know my kids all have myspace pages and facebook pages, and it seems like it could be a lot of fun...if you are a fun, social kind of person who likes to "hang out" on occasion. It also seems like a TON of work. Why not just pick up the phone and call? Or send a text? Or meet for coffee at Starbucks? Seems kind of false and not very meaningful if you ask me, to invite people you haven't seen or heard from in 10 years to be your "friend."

I got an email from 2 of my kids inviting me to their Myspace pages...inviting me to be their "friend." Cool! Hey, don't forget to shut the lights off before you go to bed.... After visiting some of my "friends" none of whom were actually in the same room with me, and some of whom I am related to, I have determined it is a lot more fun to interact with real people-friends or not. Why do you need 84 friends? At least with real people you have a real face and a real space. And eye contact....if you want someone to be your friend, smile, be friendly, engage in conversation, be interested and make eye contact. There's a novel concept. It cracks me up to see my kids, who are in bedrooms next to each other, by the way, sending each other a message on Myspace. "Hey!" " What's up?" how many steps does it take to do that? Just knock on the wall.

Maybe Facebook and Myspace have their purpose in the universe....seems like it should be called FacelessBook and Everyone's Space....so now I must ask permission and invite random people to be my friends. I think I'll make a list and send a card or a personal email. Or call. No invitation necessary. And if you're not sure whether you are really my friend, call me and I will invite you to my My space page or I guess I probably have a Facebook account now, too. Oops.