dianaschnuth

Facebook is a one-stop shop for all varieties of friends and acquaintances. Want to find your best friend from elementary school? Probably on Facebook. Curious about your first crush? Probably on Facebook. Wondering what the valedictorian made of him/herself? You can find out on Facebook.

That’s how I use Facebook: I’m a voyeur of sorts. Some people enjoy the games and quizzes and other apps. Some people use Facebook as their primary means of communication with friends and family. Me, I’m pretty passive about things. I have all my online activity feed through to my Wall automatically — my blog and Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Google Reader, et al. I check my News Feed daily. And, on occasion, I go hunting for old friends and acquaintances.

It’s fun to see how people have changed and matured over the years, and to see how people’s impressions of you have changed. One person said that she could tell exactly who I was from my profile pic, despite my new married name, because I hadn’t changed a bit since high school. Another person said that I looked “fantastically different,” in a good way. (I wish I could find her full quotable, but Facebook isn’t very searchable when it comes to comments.)

While I can’t claim to have rekindled any old friendships or made any new friends via Facebook, I have managed to stay in touch with family and close friends a little better. My Mom is on Facebook every night, farming her Farmville and yo-ing her Yo-ville, so I know she sees what’s going on with me, since all my blogs and updates feed through automatically.

I also enjoy reading the updates of people who knew me way back when, who no longer play a major role in my life, who may have forgotten that I’m watching. Some of them are so much the same people they’ve always been. Some of them are fantastically different.