To FB or not to FB

So somewhere I saw the question about whether or not people would pay for Facebook if it were no longer free. And it got me thinking.

Facebook is one of the few addictions that’s free, harmless, and readily available. Unlike other addictions.  In order to keep Facebook harmless, I have to work at it. I make my own rules and try very hard to stick to them.

Do I really care what you ate for dinner last night? Do I want to see pictures of you at your favorite restaurant?  Does your boss or do your associates need information about your latest cough, cold, stomach ache, or even surgery? If any of that information could interfere with your job prospects, or paint a picture that you would rather hide from the person making decisions about your future, keep it off Facebook.

All that advice made sense—then I started to read my own Facebook page to see what kind of picture I had painted of myself. If a stranger started to read my posts, a really strange person would emerge: 

No, I don’t have MS. All my interest in and friends with MS originated from a project that Liz and I started years ago. We set out to demonstrate that service dogs could enhance the quality of life for MS patients. I made some good friends, learned a lot about MS, and still really care about people who are functioning with MS.

Dogs are my passion. There was one six month period in our marriage when we didn’t have a dog, and we ended up with parrot number one, then number two a year later, then number three a few years after that. The only problem is that parrots have the mentality of two year-olds and we have lived with three two year-olds since the late 1980’s. 

 

At the same time, we have had dogs in all shapes and sizes, always three at a time. When our children were little, the dogs were Dobermans, but, for the last 20 years, they have been rescues. Thanks to Adopt-a-Pet, our lives are filled with positivity. They thank their adopters—we thank them.  

No, I’m not gay--my daughter is. I care very deeply about the lives of people in the gay community and am thrilled that, once and for all, SCOTUS may do the right thing. (Go, notorious RBG!) Liz and I were bemoaning the fact that the book about healthcare for the Gay community that she wrote while still in graduate school didn’t really take off. Unfortunately, we were ahead of the curve. I keep telling her to rewrite the book and re-issue it, but, with a mind like hers, looking back isn’t in her vocabulary. 

Yes, I’m a liberal, always have been. I’m my father’s daughter. He was color blind and brought me up to believe that color blind is the only blindness that is acceptable. Kind of funny, because my father was an optometrist -- curing people’s problems with vision was his life’s work.

Religion—check out the photo. Keep it to yourself. Sure, we’re now working with our Buddha dog to encourage and teach people to use mindfulness meditation with their pets to enhance their lives, but you don’t need religion to meditate.

So there’s my Facebook image. It’s all out there. Tomorrow, my interests may change, but I love Facebook because it’s a way to keep in touch with those whom I always cared about, and meet strangers who share something that interests me. 

That’s the best part of Facebook: you only have to share limited aspects of your life—you don’t have to get married and live together.