Heidi's Pensieve

Welcome to my pensieve, certainly not as world-saving as Dumbledore's, definitely not as tortured as Snape's. Just some thoughts swirling around me head that I like to withdraw and leave here to moil around.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Facebook Friends

One of my FB friends posted this on her status recently: Who says facebook friends aren't real friends? They talk to you if you're down, send condolences if you've lost someone you love, give you birthday wishes on your birthday, and enjoy seeing you online everyday, and enjoy the photos and videos you post.

Yesterday was my brother Harry's birthday and when I went to his wall to post a greeting, I saw so many of his FB friends have beat me to it. That reminded me of how chuffed pleased I was last few years to receive all these additional birthday greetings on my birthday. Suffice to say: the birthday greetings on FB outstripped the text message greetings on the phone by 3 to 1 and even more, the phone call greetings and the email greetings, or even the in person greetings. Sometimes your real friends may even forget to wish you on your birthday.

When I observed that aloud, one of the responses that irked me was: the media is so cheap nowadays that people have replaced the personal with the impersonal. That does not make it any less meaningful.

It IS the thought that counts.

A simple greeting of typing only 2 words on the FB wall of someone multiplied by the number of friends on his/her friends' list means a whole screen times 2 or 3 scroll downs of people out there thinking of you on your special day.

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