End of an Era... and a new perspective on Facebook

Tonight ended ba* mitzvah season for Mary Kathryn's friends. I spent the day running around between service, shopping, shooting laser tag with Drew and watching a movie to end the day. It was a full, and fulfilling day, and tomorrow promises to be no different.

We went to see "The Social Network" tonight -- about Mark Zuckerberg and the battles, both personal and business, that resulted from the formation of the idea and the company. It was a pretty fascinating story, and one that if mostly true (I know Aaron Sorkin could relate to the drug use), tells a lot about the absolutely cutthroat actions that were taken to create it. It made me think about how Facebook has been a positive and a negative in my life... from the distractions, to the fights, to the way that is has influenced me to write this blog to the fight that I once had over my relationship status, and my own reaction to the same thing at different times in my life.

My use/addiction to Facebook has evolved, from a "nearly every second I could" deal to the mostly occasional presence I have today. It is addictive, and the preferred platform for my interaction with friends, both old and new. But it is hardly the place I would go to communicate something important to my friends, or the way I want to publicly live my life (I do that here, and I won't be a billionaire from this blog). It is a community, not unlike one that many of us work in, live in or simply pass through, and therefore becomes what we make of it, and it makes of us.

I have connected with friends I thought I'd lost, and where the absence of friends is occasionally felt. With some regularity, someone appears that I hadn't heard from in many years -- and I am thankful for that surprising gift. I've quit, and started back, and now realize that I am proud of my friendships, but it is hardly even in the top ten things in my life that I am thankful for. The unexpected occurred here, and the ordinary, and I just make do with how I will be here.