It's The Colorless Picture, In A Heart-Shaped Frame, The Silhouette Of A Doe-Eyed Girl, Who At One Point Had A Name

--"Common Reactor", Silversun Pickups

Sometimes I receive invitations from people to "friend" them on Facebook or Twitter. Now, I'm usually inclined to accept everyone who asks me just as I'm usually inclined to invite people I barely know. But, even so, there are just some people I'm still surprised even ask me to accept them. It's still amazing, given my history with certain people, that they would even think of me as someone they would want to know every facet of their business. It's not like they don't know that a lot of what I read or hear ends up being posted on here in some fashion or other. And it's not like they don't know that I don't usually actively engage many people outside of a small circle of friends. What they expect me to say I have no idea.

I've also come to realize, even though I'm constantly tweeting throughout the day, I've turned facebook into a place where I really allow a lot of who I am to shine through. I mean--I may share my most poignant or serious stories that I possess here, but on facebook I kind of let loose of what a big geek I am. I post links to songs I may be listening to, stupid ideas I may be working on, and just random crap that really captures how random my thought processes are. I do that a little on twitter, but twitter is usually employed more to capture what I did during my day--where I ate, who I hung out with, where I was. But facebook is more closely associated with daily adventure of being me. Quite frankly, that's a collection of information I would rather certain people didn't have access to. That's why there are certain people that I routinely turn down friending me on there. It's not because I think I have anything to hide, but because there are certain people that I just don't feel like sharing anything about myself with--so deep is my animosity with them.

It's a strange feeling. It's like I don't care that people know what I've been through, even if I don't know them that well. But I also do hold grudges. I also do take things personally. Knowing that, I realize that I'm prone to fits of pettiness. I can't take away what people already have in terms of knowledge about me, but I can withhold as much new information as possible from ever being gleaned by them. I can't control much, but I can control somewhat of who and what I share with people. That's what I've taken as a personal lesson from dabbling in the new era of social networking.

I know the 192 people I have listed as friends on my facebook list aren't all truly my friends, but I'm more satisfied knowing that of those 192 people, none of them are people I wouldn't want to be friends with in real life. It would really ruin my whole perception of being a part of the great facade that is social networking if I ever included somebody I truly despised in real life onto one or all of my friends list. That would just be too facetious, even for me.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers