Facebook Community 2010
(In 2021 FB Friends number 2,660!)
I have over 200 friends on Facebook!
Imagine getting all your friends together –
in a room – from all over the world
and talking to them about
exactly what you want to talk about
without fear of boring them
or running up a phone bill.
That’s Facebook…..I’m not trying to sell it
just to describe it for people who don’t know.
There’s Steven, who lives in Italy and mostly
likes to be on retreat in the mountains
but when he returns to Rome he likes
to check news from his old grammar school friend.
Speaking of mountain tops, there’s Etsuko in Bulgaria,
whose homeland is Tokyo –
she was a student of mine decades ago.
Not too long ago I myself was on a mountaintop
in China – HuangShan – feeling like
a pilgrim in the midst of an ink painting.
I could reminisce with other travelers
on that adventure – at leisure – their’s and mine.
This “Facebook checking-in” – doesn’t have time restraints,
if that’s your preference,
nor does it demand replies –
again, if you so choose.
It can be, depending upon the friends,
intensely personal or
very impersonal.
There’s nothing quite like it.
You can talk to pre-teens at the same
time you talk to great-grandmothers –
if they’re into computers –
and some are.
You can eavesdrop on your friends’ conversations,
with their friends -with no embarrassment –
their’s or your’s.
You can get to know more about public figures
you respect on a personal level
whom you’ve only known through their
professional appearances or their writings –
– these are friends whom you may never have met
like the President of the U.S. – whom I have
dropped as a friend because he posts too much.
There’s the magic of a young mother’s affection,
a young lover’s musings,
a co-worker’s off hours,
a sportsman’s trials,
a minister’s ministry,
a monk’s musings,
a distant family member’s loss,
a cousin’s marriage,
and on and on it goes.
A Facebook voyageur can be
a jet setter in an arm chair,
encouraging to a friend,
dismissive to a stranger,
vocal to a confidante,
silent to an opinion,
fiery to a cause,
passive to a plea.
There are all levels of friendship on FB.
Some people are friends of friends,
with whom you find to have much in common.
Some are long-lost relatives or acquaintances
who somehow fill gaps in your personal history.
Some are strangers whom you’ve accepted as
“friend” because of group affiliation.
My FB community is amazingly complex.
Good grief how different all these people are!
And yet there is a common thread that
is visible every time I open my Home page.
There’s a connection that only can be made on FB.
It is a source for community building – not only
at the village level but at the
world level too.
I’m grateful for it.
Artaware's Blog 