FACEBOOK

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Facebook for a while now. And since I have been doing my “Year of the Chicken/Chicken on the Head” blog this relationship has only deepened. 

Facebook, Social Media in general, has always perplexed me. What is it about Social Media that creates in us the desire to while away hours, living vicariously through the one thousand, six hundred and twenty seven friends that have been “collected”? Is there really that many fabulously fantastic selfies out there? Can we be watching that many cute animal YouTube clips? Are there that many online petitions we desperately must sign up for?

I will admit to being a bit hopeless as a Facebook friend. I was first badgered into it in 2010 by a very dear “real” friend, who is probably the most prolific person on my newsfeed. Although, I still devour her daily updates, like her photos and comment on her feeds.

Confession, I am more voyeur than volunteer.

The enigma of Lindsay Rosmarin

Lately, however, something has changed. Something quiet. Almost like it has crept up on tiptoes and whispered seductively in my ear. “Social Media… Social Media… Social Media...” Try as I might to slap it away, I know it’s too late. It already has me in its abstruse grasp. Like the wispy cartoon smoke hand that lures you into its trap. Snap, it’s too late. There is no hope for me. Social Media has my brain in its vice like grip. So much so that recently my Facebook friends list has jumped from 17 to 38.

What’s that? Do I hear mocking laughter? Meh. 38 friends, who do you think you are kidding, I hear you say.

Okay I admit it. I am not what you would call steeped in Social Media greatness. Not sure I want to be. But, what I do crave is to stay in touch.

Prior to Facebook, Gmail, Blogger and those other Social Media traps, friends have come and friends have gone. Never to be seen again. Good people too. People who had been there for me. Especially when I really needed them. People who are now only but a distance memory. People who, if they are lucky, are remembered only through a photo, tucked into a dusty album, shoved into the bottom of a bookcase.

Yes, Social Media does have a place in my life. Not for selfies. Not for cute animal YouTube clips. (Although I do secretly enjoy the dog ones a little too much.) Instead, it is to keep hold of those that are dear to me. New friends. Old ones. Friends that have come to me through the courtesy of others.

To hold close the friend who was the second half of my brain at work. Together we made up the phantom staff member of Lindsay Rosmarin, and haunted the halls of our office. A phantom person that was always there, but never existed. It was this friend who, through laughter, understanding and coffee, helped to keep me sane in a place that was at times completely insane.

My Eighth Birthday
Me: Second from the left. Kye: Second from the right
A friendship that has lasted decades.

To cherish the friendship of a girl who has been a friend for so long it is truly mind boggling. This is a friendship that is almost half a century old. This year we will celebrate our fiftieth birthdays together, having been friends since we were four.

To keep the friendship alive of a friend from high school. Although she lives in NQ, we follow the same star. We have the same dream. We fight the same fight.

To follow the friend who is about to start a new journey. Who has had the courage to pick up her life after it had so tragically fallen apart. To start again, began a new dream and live in a place that is truly hers.

To make sure the friend who has the not so subtle gift of giving me a slap around the head at preciously the moment I need it, continues to do so. And to give her one back in return, when she needs it.

And watch as a friend is about to add to her growing but adored family and the other who recently added to her own.

All of these people, and many others, make up the 38.

I wonder. Do they know?

Do they know that when the bling goes how happy it makes me feel? To be included in their lives. Even though it is through the tenuous link of Social Media.