Facebook and other things.

(Doesn't the title itself seem like Facebook is taking over our lives?)

My sister insisted I join Facebook before the end of last year.

Managed to skive off that one.

I'm against joining Facebook for a couple of reasons. It seems to make connections so.. mechanic. People keep in touch because they happen to be able to, not because they want to. There's no longer any fun in keeping touch, there's nothing special about it. Every friend becomes a number on the list of Friends. Letters became emails which became SMSes, which have now become Wall Posts. No one remembers the excitement of receiving a letter. Or even an email.

And another thing that irritates me is that everything is so public. Even when you restrict your profile to friends, every friend can see what you said to every other friend. I've never been too comfortable with that.

And the photos! I don't like putting up photos of myself (That post some time back was the only time I've done it I think, and that was in a nostalgic fit.) but so many of my photos are already uploaded! But it looks like joining Facebook is the only way I'm going to get all the photos we took.

I give a lot of value to every type of communication. I save MSN conversation and read them when I'm free. I never delete emails. I manually copy out my phone's inbox, every single message. I'm afraid that if I join Facebook, I'll get the irresistible urge to start saving Wall Posts too. And that is an infinite waste of time, but I just might do it.

I guess there are advantages of using Facebook too. It's good for keeping in touch with friends you WANT to keep in touch with but are otherwise unable to do so. If you've lost their number, for example, or if they're overseas. And Shiva once told me it's good for networking and sharing ideas.

I suppose it boils down to using it with discretion, but I've seen it's addictive powers in so many of my friends. Perhaps I'll have to join, whether I like it or not, not because of peer pressure, but because it has become a medium through which even important information is passed on. Perhaps I will join, but not yet.


I changed the template because that monotonous brown was getting boring. And I added some things. The Calvin and Hobbes comic and the horse pictures have to go right at the bottom of the page, unfortunately.


Books I'm reading now:

-Oliver Twist
-Romeo and Juliet
-Macbeth
-Anne of Avonlea
-Emily Climbs
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (THANK YOU for the early present, Ser En!)
-The Lord of the Rings
-The Beethoven Medal

I really should start reading more non-fiction. It's quite embarrassing when most people I know are reading philosophical arguments or biographies or something equally non-fictional, or have read them, while I'm reading The Lord of the Rings again.

But I love fiction for passages like this:

"She does look lonely," said Diana softly. "We must come often to see her."

"I think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name that could possibly be given her," said Anne. "If they had been so blind as to name her Elizabeth or Nellie or Muriel she must have been called Lavender just the same, I think. It's so suggestive of sweetness and old-fashioned graces and 'silk attire'. Now, my name just smacks of bread and butter, patchwork and chores."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Diana. "Anne seems to me real stately and like a queen. But I'd like Kerrenhappuch if it happened to be your name. I think people make their names nice or ugly just by what they are themselves. I can't bear Josie or Gertie for names now but before I knew the Pye girls I thought those names real pretty."

"That's a lovely idea, Diana," said Anne enthusiastically. "Living so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with... making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely and pleasant that they never think of it by itself. Thank you, Diana."