First a quick note about this blog: For the past few months, the blog has purely been used to pass along publicity materials relating to topics featured on PatriotResource.com. Now, we’re attempting to branch out with some original content on the blog. This series of posts will be tagged as “Off the Cuff.” The series is starting off with several posts inspired by recently joining Facebook.

A few weeks ago, I made my first tentative steps at setting up a profile on Facebook. This was my first foray into any Internet-based social activity since ICQ almost a decade ago. Yes, I know that ICQ was little more than a chat room, but stop and think about it for a moment. With ICQ, you could network with people and know when they were also online. ICQ also allowed the sharing of content in a very basic way. ICQ even supported free voice-over IP when a plug-in was installed. After a couple years, offline family responsibilities and interaction more than outweighed the charm of talking to online friends from South America or Asia.

Though I’ve had Internet access continuously for ten years, chat rooms were never of interest and the more recent MySpace phenomenon also never appeared thanks to its noisy, busy and immature interface and trappings. The idea of accumulating “friends” like a scoreboard was not a desired pursuit. That’s not to say I haven’t been interested in getting back in touch with old friends or classmates. I’ve got a pair of profiles on both Classmates.com and Reunion.com (recently rechristened MyLife.com), however both sites are an exercise in frustration. I could see who else had signed up, but could actually view few details and could not communicate with them. Free trials for “premium access” did nothing to persuade in investing in the price of such access.

For reasons that escape me now, I decided to Google a high school buddy whose geographic whereabouts were known, but recent contact information was not. The search returned his Facebook page. I went through the routine of signing up, then requesting his acknowledged as a friend. After a few days, he granted approval and I was “in.” Unlike MySpace, I found Facebook to be clean and organized even with some of the same trappings. I preferred that it didn’t look like an art project gone mad.

Seeing real names listed as friends on my buddy’s page enticed me to start searching for people I wanted to find. When I actually found a couple that I wanted to “friend,” I finally broke down and put together a real profile with some biographical information. Armed with that, I tracked down a half dozen people and sent the requisite requests. Within a few hours, all were approved and I sat back and waited for someone to personally acknowledge me. In the meantime, I was corresponding with my old buddy using Facebook’s email utility and catching up, but I didn’t feel the need to fire off a personal message to each of the others.

After a couple of weeks, my Facebook email exchange with my buddy was still the only acknowledgements. I had even made a couple of posts to my “wall” which garnered no response. In the meantime, I did notice a lot of pictures being shared, which always seemed to prompt comments. I’m not a “picture person,” but I did manage to dig up a photo to use on my profile and a few pictures of my kids. I posted them and again waited to see if anyone noticed. I’ve now been on Facebook for about six weeks, joined a few groups, posted photos, posted to my wall and commented on a couple of Friends’ posts and yet have not any direct interaction with anyone other than the emails exchange with my old friend.

Now, I didn’t point this out as a “sob story.” Rather, the results of my early experiences with Facebook just have mirrored real life. With the exception of a handful of close friends, I really wasn’t a social person, so small talk isn’t my strong suit and Facebook is full of small talk. So once again, I’m on the sidelines so to speak watching the activity. I did find a couple of old close friends on Facebook, but I would have found them without Facebook. That said, I’ll stick around Facebook and see what happens. I just haven’t decided how much of my current life I’ll be putting on display. In my case, Facebook hasn’t led to “reconnecting” with anyone… yet. If anything changes with my experience on Facebook, I’ll post an update.

Stay tuned for a couple of posts inspired by old memories dredged up after poking around Facebook for old acquaintances.

Post by Scott Cummings

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