JUST SAY NO TO: FRIENDS
I opened my web browser the other morning to find a top story that originated in the financial section of Yahoo, entitled: "HOW TO HIDE FROM YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK." Where do I begin? The late night folks could have had a field day with this and perhaps they did; they begin their monologue way past my bedtime.
I don't know if I'm more annoyed by the assumption that people as a matter of course "hide from their friends" or that anyone takes seriously the unfortunate moniker "friend" for the folks linked together on Facebook. Sorry to my 79 friends.
We are among the fortunate if we have one or two good friends. We are blessed if we have a few. We are special if over a lifetime we need two hands to count them. When people fall within the parameters Yahoo cited, needing to be hidden from, they aren't friends, DUH.
Perhaps we could pursue a class-action lawsuit against FACEBOOK for abuse of the word: friend. Our grounds could be that it's trivial use is a "crime against humanity" damaging to true human relationship. While it was probably a great marketing strategy, it really is an insult to real, honest, precious, sacred friendships everywhere. If Xerox and Kleenex can stop people from calling photocopies and facial tissues by their corporate names -- can't friends, bind themselves together and stop Facebook from trivializing real friendship?
That we've allowed ourselves to become complicit with this abuse of the word
friend likely says something about us. Too busy to notice? Too busy to care?
Unaware of the ramifications? Or is it silent consent, acknowledging how our society has devalued rich relationships? Is friendship simply the most recent victim of our disposable world? Has the word friend gone the way of the words fidelity, loyalty, promise, and vow? Once permanent, now temporary.
Words are the symbols that govern our lives in powerful ways. Allowing their meaning to change, changes us. If we don't at least acknowledge that a sacred symbol is being gutted of its meaning -- we lose, we all lose. And then, my friend, you can just pass the Kleenex.
It's not likely that I'll mount a campaign to attempt to force Facebook to change how they group people together. "Acqaintances" is not likely to be a new category on your wall. But it's worth taking this moment to consider what friendship means to us. It's worth taking these few minutes to sort out in our own minds what makes someone our friend -- and us theirs. It may even be worth contacting a friend to tell them what their friendship means to us.
Or send a friend a copy of this blog so that in a small way, in a small corner of the universe we can begin to reclaim the symbol of what it means to be a friend. Now, I'm going to send this blog to my friends... even to some that don't subscribe. BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK
I don't know if I'm more annoyed by the assumption that people as a matter of course "hide from their friends" or that anyone takes seriously the unfortunate moniker "friend" for the folks linked together on Facebook. Sorry to my 79 friends.
We are among the fortunate if we have one or two good friends. We are blessed if we have a few. We are special if over a lifetime we need two hands to count them. When people fall within the parameters Yahoo cited, needing to be hidden from, they aren't friends, DUH.
Perhaps we could pursue a class-action lawsuit against FACEBOOK for abuse of the word: friend. Our grounds could be that it's trivial use is a "crime against humanity" damaging to true human relationship. While it was probably a great marketing strategy, it really is an insult to real, honest, precious, sacred friendships everywhere. If Xerox and Kleenex can stop people from calling photocopies and facial tissues by their corporate names -- can't friends, bind themselves together and stop Facebook from trivializing real friendship?
That we've allowed ourselves to become complicit with this abuse of the word
friend likely says something about us. Too busy to notice? Too busy to care?
Unaware of the ramifications? Or is it silent consent, acknowledging how our society has devalued rich relationships? Is friendship simply the most recent victim of our disposable world? Has the word friend gone the way of the words fidelity, loyalty, promise, and vow? Once permanent, now temporary.
Words are the symbols that govern our lives in powerful ways. Allowing their meaning to change, changes us. If we don't at least acknowledge that a sacred symbol is being gutted of its meaning -- we lose, we all lose. And then, my friend, you can just pass the Kleenex.
It's not likely that I'll mount a campaign to attempt to force Facebook to change how they group people together. "Acqaintances" is not likely to be a new category on your wall. But it's worth taking this moment to consider what friendship means to us. It's worth taking these few minutes to sort out in our own minds what makes someone our friend -- and us theirs. It may even be worth contacting a friend to tell them what their friendship means to us.
Or send a friend a copy of this blog so that in a small way, in a small corner of the universe we can begin to reclaim the symbol of what it means to be a friend. Now, I'm going to send this blog to my friends... even to some that don't subscribe. BLESSINGS AND JOY, THE CELTIC MONK
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