Facebook is a Cornucopia...Like It or Not

I kind of like the wide variety of stuff that I see on my Facebook feed. I like that I have a diverse group of friends that post many different kinds of things.

I have political friends that post many things about the issues of our day.  Most of them are sharing things that they had seen or read elsewhere, but occasionally there is personal commentary as well.  My feed is probably different than most in that I have more liberal posters than conservative.  But I do have some, and I don't mind getting them, even when they're slightly aggravating.  Right now, I'm getting a good number of posts on all sides of the sensible gun control issue (can you tell what side I'm on?).

I have theatre friends who help me keep up to date with the happenings in community theatre around here.  I used to be in plays, get close to people, and then have the play end and not hear from those people again unless I happened to get into another play with them.  Facebook helps to bridge that gap, and I have been able to maintain better friendships between plays.

I have high school friends that I had not been in contact with for over forty years.  It has been a great joy to re-connect and hear what's going on...like a catching up with a story you thought you had long since set aside. The friends that I have acquired don't match up to those who I was close to in high school, but make me wonder how deep in the sand my head was buried.  How much better high school might have been if I had simply opened more.  In some cases, people who I thought didn't like me very well, I have established close bonds with.

I have younger friends, most picked up in connection with the theatre group.  Their enthusiasms and angst comes through pretty loud sometimes.

I have church friends that help keep me up with goings on at our church, and bring a shared Christian communion to my feed.

Sometimes people get aggravated over what they perceive is dominating their feed.  People talking too much about politics, sharing too much about cats, talking too much or too personal about their family and friends, too much about sports, etc.  I for one, although I may do so on the blog, don't over discuss what I'm having for dinner or too much about immediate things happening with the family or gush about Alison.  It's not just my habit.

Yesterday, however, I decided to try to see what it felt like.  I mentioned in a post what I was anticipating for dinner when I got home, and said something nice about the beautiful preparer, Alison.  It got a good number of likes, more than I get from a lot of other things.  And although I'm still not personally inclined to do it very often, it felt pretty good.

I suppose it's possible to run through your friendship list like the Queen of Hearts, cutting off the head (defriending) of anyone who dares to cross a narrow band of rhetorical limits.  But I think if you do, you're depriving yourself of a great experience.

So at least on my feed,  unless you are personally rude and destructive to other people, I won't banish you. Party on, Facebookers!  Keep that variety coming!