Coffee talk...a lost art?

I want to love Facebook; I want to embrace it. But I can't fully commit to this relationship.

I have an account. I use it, I post to it, I even have to use it for work. Call me a cynic, but I'm still teetering on the Facebook fence.

While I want to keep up on everyone's lives...to some degree, there are parts of all of us I just don't care to know. It gives us all an air of mystery and I like that. I like catching up with someone I haven't spoken to in months. I think that's what drove me to write this blog today.

I hadn't spoken to my friend Rebecca in a couple of months. Crazy schedules, work, school, life got in the way.  While we both have Facebook pages, she rarely uses hers....and I realized I LIKE that. It made the phone call all the more special.

I have friends who don't use FB at all....and I like that, too. For one thing, having to pick up the phone or meet someone at Starbucks forces my introvert self to cross the line over the line into extrovertism  - is that a word? It is now! It makes it all more exciting: the thrill of the chase of hunting someone down whom I haven't seen a while. It makes all the little moments we share mean more and makes me listen harder. I can't scroll past a post; I have to look in their eyes over my latte while they confide the office drama or the details of a recent trip. It's all about sharing; it forces me out of my shell. I am beginning to think the art of spending time face-to-face with friends is lost; it's taken a wrong turn onto a one-way road of the information super-highway.

It just made human contact all the more real for me today.

I think FB is a GREAT tool; don't get me wrong. I follow many bloggers who have FB pages that their readers can follow and they post wonderful information out there. It's kept relevant to a common interest. I follow my favorite shops and get sneak peaks at new clothing lines and products. I can keep up with my favorite charities.

Am I crazy for not needing to read constant status updates or where someone has "checked in" throughout the day?

Then there's the hurt feelings. Admit it; if you've been on FB at all, you've experienced them. Someone who seems to be having more fun than we are or going to all the good restaurants. And what happens if you realized someone has changed their status settings to let only a few in to their daily lives? While I complain about not needing to know they just ate salad, I miss it when the posts stop popping up in my feed.

I've found old boyfriends there, their new wives, old friends, and memories from high school I don't care to remember. It's a mixed-bag of feelings. It's exhausting. I think of how much better off I'd be not knowing some of the things I do now. I would never have known them if it hadn't been for FB.

I try to stay away, but I can't. Am I a glutton for punishment? Probably. I'm not fully ready to give it up, though (I couldn't if I wanted to anyway because it's part of my 9-5 job), but I need to manipulate it more to suit MY needs. Right now it just seems to be feeding into insecurities.

Have YOU embraced social networking? How do you make it work for you?