F is for Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg and his prize baby Facebook have been all over the news lately. Since I’m not a very techie person and since I use Facebook strictly to keep up with friends and family and former students, I’m not aware of all that losing-of-my-data stuff. It breaks my heart because there are so many dishonest people in the world. I just don’t know how they sleep with themselves when they do some of the things that they’ve done via one of my favorite places to go on the Internet. I don’t know how much of the immoral things that have happened because of Facebook are Zuckerburg’s fault, but he’s going to get blamed for all of it, I imagine, in the hearings next week.

Enough said! What I really want to talk about in this piece is why I love Facebook. I began to hear about this social media site several years ago when it first came on the scene. My cousin kept encouraging me to join, but I had it in my mind that it was a site for kids. I had no idea of the scope that it already had in 2008.

One day, when my husband and I were waiting for our flight in the Albuquerque airport, on a whim, I decided to take my cousin’s advice and join. It took only a few minutes, and when the first Facebook screen popped up with photos of people that I might know, there were Mary and Charles, two college friends that I had been trying to find for years! I decided at that moment that I loved Facebook!  I learned the basics of using the program by writing to Mary, one of my college suitemates. She was just as elated to hear from me as I was to find her.

That was ten years ago, and I still love Facebook, warts and all. What I love most is being able to keep up with people. Oh, yes, I get all that Trending stuff and ads and sometimes political pieces that friends from opposite political leanings have, but I just ignore all of that. I did hide one friend because of her nasty postings about the president, but I have never unfriended anyone. I have more than 1400 friends on Facebook, but I don’t try to keep up with all of them. I just like to see what they post every once in a while, and I love to see pictures and most of the stories and articles  that they post. For instance, yesterday someone posted a meeting between Woody Allen and Billy Graham. It was wonderful and went directly to my Facebook page. I have about 150 of my former students as friends, and they send me such funny grammar cartoons, knowing that their old English teacher will enjoy them. Some of these students even ask me grammar and composition questions so that they can help their children with their homework  . . . or even their grandchildren.

I get messages with good news (honors that they or their children have received, announcements about weddings and graduations, information that they’ll be traveling in my area and wondering if they can see me, all sorts of wonderful things). Sometimes someone will give me bad news (deaths of friends or news about problems that friends have and that they need prayers for; recently a message that broke my heart: a favorite student from many years ago had shot and killed his two sons and then killed himself probably because of the devastation that he was feeling because of divorce).

I don’t post something every day, but there are two days of the year when I always post: February 10, our son’s birthday, and July 2, his death day. On those days, I write and post something about Jay, who died on July 2, 1992, when he was 24 years old. I know for sure that I’ll check Facebook many times during those days, and I know that I’ll be in tears most of those days. You see, our son was loved by many. He was a very talented rock musician, and he and his band played all over the Southeast and up the Eastern Seaboard. They had hundreds of followers, and those followers loved my boy. On those special posting days, I usually get about 50 comments from people who loved Jay Young and Velvet Melon, his band. Such very special days! Thank you, Facebook!

I’ve mentioned only a few of the reasons that I love Facebook. My feeling about people who are unhappy because something dreadful has happened because of their Facebook account is that they shouldn’t post anything that they don’t want just anyone to know. I post only what I’d be happy for anyone to read.

I’ll be interested to find out how all of the hoopla about Facebook turns out. It will take almost an act of Congress to make me close my account.