to confirm or ignore: the Facebook delima

Crazy thing this Facebook.

Due to so many of the youth and 20's I work with at our church having a Facebook account I felt compelled to also create an account...but I'll be honest, I don't much get the point of it. Now, I will admit that it's been a great experience finding or being found by old friends. But I'm not one to jump at every "people you might know" picture that pops up. I tend to be a little more reserved with my private life, hence the pseudonym "Hoosier Reborn", aka HR. I guess some people are all about trying to figure out how many friends they can tally up...but I don't care much about that.

Here's the cool thing I've experienced with Facebook. A number of old college friends have been found, as far away as Norway. It's a great way to drop a line to someone you basically don't see at all anymore. In fact, one old buddy-Bryan, in whose wedding I participated and we hadn't spoken in 15 years, doubled with my wife and I over the holidays and it was so great to rekindle that friendship.

The downside? It drives me nuts that the mayor of river city and I have mutual friends, because his dorky picture from the nose up to his bald head kept showing up on my home page....until he changed it to a picture of him sporting a dorky hat sitting in a chair holding a pistol with pictures of scantily clad women behind him. Stupid is as stupid does I guess.

But then there are those names of people who ask you to confirm them as a friend and you think, hmm..I really don't remember you liking me much back during my Bethel days. And even weirder was an "acquaintance" from river city, terribly Republican. Why would she want to be my friend? I checked out her friends (there were like 400) among whom was major state Republican names including Mitch's. I wonder if Mitch would accept my friend request? I really struggled with whether or not to confirm my acquaintance....I mean, really, Facebook has already gotten me into political trouble since I tend to speak my mind.

Boy, do I really want my political opinions out there for everyone to see? Should they know how incensed I am over the duplicity of the Republican party? What is she going to think of me?

to confirm or ignore......with a crafty grin on my face I clicked

"confirm" friend request.....I've got nothing to lose and nothing to hide....and it's a great thing!