When seasons of life collide

Is it just me or does anyone else find Facebook and Twitter freaky in a good sort of way? I’m on both, but mostly Facebook. I now have more friends than I’ve ever had in my life. Some of them I actually know.
My daughter once asked me how I could have more than 300 Facebook friends when she, a teenager, could barely muster 100. I thought about it and concluded that after having attended elementary school, junior high, high school and college; having lived in four states; being a member of several churches and organizations; and now working with my fifth employer, I have accumulated many friends and acquaintances along the way.
In the normal flow of life, almost all of my Facebook friends would be nothing more than memories to me. That’s the way things go. You move on in life, say goodbye to old friends and make new ones.
Now, thanks to social media, we can dig up our past and drag it kicking and screaming into the present. It’s very surreal to be in almost daily contact with people I’ve only known briefly and that many years ago. It’s also interesting to see how friends from different areas of my life are connected with other friends that I would never have known they knew each other. (Did that make any sense?) Facebook really is a world wide web unto itself.
I’m fascinated to see friends from vastly different parts of my world get into discussions as they comment on something I’ve posted. I’ve also gotten to know some people just by being regular commenters on mutual friends’ postings.
At one time I was “friends” with my wife, ex-wife, a couple of former girlfriends, former drinking buddies, prayer partners, current and former co-workers, athletes, astronauts, artists, cowboys, actors, pastors, authors and seemingly endless numbers of family and former classmates.
I’ve wised up and dropped a few that I have no business associating with anymore. I’ve also blocked from my “stream” several friends that I want to keep in contact with, but don’t want to know the minutia of their lives.
In addition to my own personal Facebook activities, I maintain a page for the Waller County News Citizen, as well as one for the Lone Ranger Fan Club. In hindsight, I think I’m more social online than I ever was in person.
As for Twitter, I mostly use it as another way to access Facebook. I also follow several celebrities on there. For the most part, Twitter is a waste of my time and is often redundant to Facebook.
One of the huge benefits of Facebook is joining pages of favorite restaurants and businesses that offer discounts and freebies exclusively on their pages. I can also get updates on my favorite sports teams and movie companies. A big one for me is the ability to keep up with everything going on with NASA.
While it may sound like I’m a rambling commercial for Facebook, I’m not. There are times I wish I could break my addiction to this time-sucking electronic spider web. I think at times I’m overwhelmed at seeing the various seasons of my life collide and then explode in a shower of photos, video and commentary. There is something very unnatural about that.
Sadly, I have some friends who have had their marriages end because they or their spouse formed relationships online that never should have happened. I guess that risk exists in many arenas of life, but can be done much more stealthily (and permanently) online.
On the other hand, it’s all very exciting to answer the “what ever happened to …” questions and see where some of the mysteries of my past have played out. It’s also very handy for staying in contact with family, friends and associates, especially with people I care about being scattered around the globe at various times.
As a closing note, it’s interesting to me that while I am writing this as my weekly column for the Waller County News Citizen, there will be more people who read it on Facebook than there will be in the newspaper itself.