Facebook

yes.

i signed on a couple of years ago.
i'd moved out of the city,
and i thought it might help me
stay in touch...

and it has, with some folks...
which is very cool.

at the same time, though,
it seems that maybe 1 in 10 FB friends
ever turns up there very often.

Friend requests can be
a wonderful surprise...
dear hearts i probably never would
have found any other way.


or vice-versa.



like "hey- you're not dead
yet either...
cool!"

sometimes, it's someone i don't want
to have any contact with
in any medium, ever again.

it's not like "ewwwwww".
it's the real deal.


that's when 'not Friending"
can send its own message.

i hope.

seriously.







i hope that's what they think
when i don't Friend back...

i think Facebook is a weird thing,
actually.


but honestly, that's probably
because i don't really get it.

i don't get a lot of things.





'social marketing'



twittering.

any of it...

obviously, Facebook exists to gather information... and that's not just about what you or i or any one person might contribute.

the chart above, for instance,
plots out the ebb and flow
in the break-up rate in relationships,
according to Facebook postings.

how weird is that?

people seem to get issued-up when there's reports about this harvesting of information...

...which is another thing i don't get.

why do you think it's been created?

to teach the world to sing?

get a grip.

read some McLuhan.

it ain't no new thing,
as we used to say...

you are the product.

- 30 -

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