Thing 20

Facebook-I joined several gardening groups because it is the one passion I could see myself enjoying chatting with others about. I think Facebook is such a phenomenon because it is easy to use and helps people feel connected with other people. The connection, however, is often an illusion. In searching for people I know, I discovered some youth from our area who are presenting themselves as quite different than their real life persona, including age and images of themselves. It didn't surprise me, but it did concern me. It was also quite disappointing to see the way kids are portraying our local community in their groups and the reputations they are giving themselves via their actions or the fantasies they are portraying as their actions. There really is little way to tell which it is. I did appreciate the fact that you had to be a "friend" in order to view their profile, although I'm sure they give that permission to just about anyone who wants to befriend them.

MySpace-I don't know exactly why, but I didn't enjoy myspace. I'm not sure if it was more complicated or if I was just tired of the whole online "relationship" concept. It could be that I had just had enough of the pseudo relationship thing. I did find a depressing, annoying and ridiculous profile of a close family member while searching, so that could have something to do with it.