Facebook

A year ago I joined the Facebook community. I had been there years before, but deactivated my account as I found it too confrontational and painful. It was there that I first saw my ex glancing at his new girlfriend with melty love stricken eyes, partying on (profile) pictures, whilst I was home with 3 kids. Not a good thing when you're still heartbroken and trying to heal. So after several bolts of self inflicted pain, I deleted my profile and swore it was not my thing. (Please don't worry as I am no longer affected by such scenes or pictures, somehow you become immune at some point.) 

Admittedly my curious nature brought me back a few years later and in February 2010, I thought, 'If you can't beat them, join them', and so I did. I spent hours, days even, trying to figure everything out, wanting to know all the in's and outs to be well informed about privacy issues this time. Made my profile page, added friends, and pictures and within a few weeks I had settled comfortably into what has now become my second 'home'.

It's the ideal spot to dwell if you don't want to feel lonely, as there's always someone around to chat or comment on. It's like this hot spot where everyone checks in, to browse around and can audaciously be nosy. It absolutely suits my personality. I've become extremely fanatic about posting, love to share music, sentiments, blogs and other stuff, much to some people's dismay I'm sure, but facebook has a built in button for that too, as it's a piece of cake to remove friends or friends' posts, just press 'unfriend' or 'hide posts' and you're instantly liberated from 'spammers' like myself.

I haven't ventured into the world of facebook games yet I must admit, as that may stop me from having a life outside of facebook altogether. Plenty of time left to explore those horizons in the future.

For now I've made myself a comfortable dwelling with a fanpage to promote my blogs and notify my readers of the latest Living la Vida Loca updates. I've made loads of old, new and even 'unknown' friends, and the strange thing is that even though this all takes place in cyberspace, people let you in deeper than they would ever do in real life...I love that, thrive on it and feel inspired by each and every one's posts, pictures, stories and comments. It's like having an extended family...always there, to support and encourage.

Having said all that, I can also imagine it being tough on the insecure souls, as comments can easily be misread and things have a way of leading their own life. Relationship statuses change like the weather and posted (profile) pictures give the impression everyone else is always happy. When my eldest decided it was also time for her to join facebook, I must admit I hesitated. Afraid of how she would cope with the stress of it all, but so far so good.


So now after numerous chats filled with emoticons to accentuate the tone of conversation, I have to admit that I enjoy the company of other cybersouls.

Today, April fool's provided the perfect opportunity for a good practical joke and so I posted some great news about my blog being published by a well known magazine, on my status. Only to find that so many friends were genuinely happy for me that it made me feel a bit guilty and kind of like I was letting them down by kidding about it, and so I was drawn to my online writing pad, to once again provide them with a blog to sink into, whilst I drown myself in thought.