Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Facebook Bonanza

I'm about to sound ultra-nerdy, but as you know by now, I'm ok with that. For at least the last month or so, I've noticed a shift in the Facebook community. Last year, it was a running joke with my students that, as soon as they graduated, they could be my "facebook friends." It has been a great way to keep in touch with former students as they've gone on to college. But in the last month, there's been an influx of Facebookers WHO ARE MY AGE! Very exciting. And probably disturbing to the young people I teach. Last year, the Broadcast Journalism class featured a story on MBC News that questioned "whether teachers and adults should even be allowed to have Facebook pages." I've got news, kids - - Generation X seems to have caught on to Facebook networking, and we're finding each other -FAST. And we have friends. Lots of friends.

As nerdy as it is, I'm finding grade school and high school friends and acquaintances every day, and there's a great, if distant, kind of joy in finding out that old friends have gone on to major in Japanese, or they are out acting in LA, or they have twins, or they're about to get married.

I think I prefer this "senior" facebooking to scrolling through pictures of the latest party or sending cupcakes or other trinkets to my facebook friends. What the younger set is missing out on is the glorious nostalgia that comes with finding old friends again - and with their age of 24/7 connections, I'm not sure they will ever experience that feeling.