Facebook Friends

Social media, social media friends

What happened to you? Did I make you mad?  We were Facebook friends and now we’re not.

To be friends with someone, there has to be mutual respect and open and honest communication. Friendship isn't something that was casual but pleasant many years ago and then turned into a few meals out. That’s acquaintanceship I think.  Additionally, real estate is my businesses so don’t quiz me on the market and then turn around and almost immediately and hire another agent to work for you.  Ask the person that you’re going to hire your questions and share with them your worries and anxieties.  Such ended the virtual and casual ‘friendship’ of Shrub family, really!

I know that I’ve been guilty of taking the “Facebook” thing too far. At the outset; why I friended everyone that I’d ever had a nodding acquaintance with or even so much as heard their name in high school, college or professionally.  It didn't matter if I didn't know them; or like them; or respect them or in some cases of Facebook friendship really admire them.  In the past few years though, I have culled the “Friendships” such that they were.  The varieties of reactions have been interesting. This includes family too.

Steve Hips, an uber-conservative with that annoying bend that he is convinced that he and his kind are the only people going to heaven was one such friend.  This until the Hipster; (not his real name) decided that he had complete and accurate insight as to his hero and modern day messiah, Ronald Reagan. When I was nauseated enough by Stevereno’s posts on Facebook, I deleted him; after of course launching some philosophical hand grenades. Oh it felt good.  Kind of like a virtual orgasm, total release and freedom. Unfortunately, the Hipster felt compelled to then text me until I threatened police intervention.  Stevereno didn't respect me enough to just let me go away, he had to peck, peck, peck a bit more until I was totally pissed off.

As for family, well if you've been following me, I've laid it all out here. Anyhow, here’s the rub, virtual ‘friends’ are not. They are people with whom perhaps there was a brief dalliance or commonality. To trust anyone except the closest intimates with the most trivial and banal of day to day life is just, well, silly now isn't it? The irony of what I do here is not lost on me by the way!