Musings on design & other stuff jen's place

I've been really busy lately. Even too busy to blog. But I like to keep on top of what my friends are up to, and in return let them know what I'm doing. The most convenient way for me to do that is my Facebook status. Sometimes, a friend will send me a note on my status or I'll send one to them. For example, Paul sent me a Facebook message when I was fed up one day. And I sent Amy a note to let her know that the mystery comment from a former professor sounded positive. And then one to Mark to find out where he was getting Afghan food -- was he still in Baltimore or back in Boston?

But then Tuesday, several of us from my former graduate program gathered at the local watering hole for appetizers and pints of Murphy's, and that's when our Facebook status really changed the nature of what our conversation would have otherwise been. I asked Neeta what she had been counting the days until ... it was graduation, but she's also planning her wedding, now, too! And Manya asked how my daughter's surgery went, and Amy and I talked about where she'd finally decided to travel to (she decided not to travel) and how I'd had 27 people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Now the content of our conversations wasn't necessarily any different than it might have been otherwise, but it was the way it unraveled ... there was no "what have you been up to". We just skipped to, "Tell me about what I read on your Facebook status" ... I hadn't spoken to any of these folks for several weeks or several months, and yet we "see" each other all the time.

I can see drawbacks to this kind of abbreviated conversation, built on frequent status updates ... for example, I probably missed out on some interesting answers to the questions that I didn't ask, (like, "What have you been up to?") ... and yet, I felt like we were able to have more meaningful dialog than we might have otherwise.

As a postscript, another member of a band I like joined Facebook. But he did it as an entertainer, not an individual. More of a persona rather than a person. And I could sign up to be his fan, but not his friend... No thanks. I'll keep reading his blog, and I'll keep Facebook for the people who want to talk back to me :)