When I first started on Facebook, I went to a friend’s site and friended people there. Then people started to find me, and now it sort of runs itself. Facebook is a fantastic tool to introduce your projects and articles, or share your political opinions. Thanks to my humble network on Facebook, I’m seeing two theatrical shows this week written by my former classmates. I’ve also reconnected with a dear friend that I have wondered about for the last 8 years, and noticed that a fling from the past (who dumped me), is now fat, ugly and bald. Last year I received a birthday wish from Barack Obama (before the Obama’s personal pages were hacked into). I friended them via my brother-in-law who went to school with them. That’s how small the world is on Facebook (this beats Kevin Bacon’s 6 degrees of separation).

Be aware that Facebook can easily rob you of your time and intelligence. You really have to have an agenda before logging on because there are some odd games that are trying to steal your time, like seeing who looks like you in Hollywood, or who your best friend is that week. Don’t fall for them. My biggest letdowns are people’s comments such as, “woke up cranky”, “eating a burrito”, “my child lost a tooth and said something ‘smart’ ”. I feel robbed of my time because I can’t just ignore them. I have to stop and wonder if the world is run by D-students, or if people are just dying for attention. I mean, really, this is what it has come down to? These are the messages we need to share with the world? Should I just let it go and realize that everyone deserves a voice out there?

As fabulous and paperless as this social media can be, and is, to post a link on all your friends’ pages to a show you are working on, sell a sweater you are knitting, or list an archive of work on your former professor’s Facebook page. I do, however, miss the old world of personal notes, cutout articles in the mail, and smelling real letters that have traveled across the ocean. Just imagine pulling an Oscar Wilde by mailing original written material, along with a personal note to a contact of importance saying, “I send you two magazines with contributions of mine which perhaps you might like to reprint, or notice; they are quite at your disposal”. (“Disposal” means recycle today).

Thank you for being a friend…