I’ve been thinking about this public social space known as Facebook a lot this week.  Last Sunday I read an essay in the NY Times Sunday magazine in which the author reflected about the way she constructed her adult identity through a series of lonely excursions into the larger world.

She went away to college and was lonely until she made friends and found connections.  Then she went away for a career and did the same thing.  Now she is entering the Facebook environment and is connecting with various social contexts from her past.

Her social self is built from the identities that she has established along the way and she wonders about the identities that younger people who use Facebook are creating.  When they go away to college or move away to start that new job they stay in constant touch with the old friends in ways that might circumvent what she feels is a necessary loneliness. 

We all need, sooner rather than later, to outgrow our high school friends in order to achieve personal and professional potentials.  How will the safe womb of Facebook affect this process?

Twice this week I have committed social indiscretions on FB.  I am now in touch with people from my past who live in a very different social context.  I am a blue state, uber-liberal educator who lives a college town sort of lifestyle.  My casual face to face conversations reinforce a particular set of values.  Some of my Facebook community are red state, conservative Christians.  Of course these simplistic labels do not come close to defining the complexity and humanity of the people involved but the are indicative of a set of language norms, assumptions and beliefs.

When I’m having a conversation in this public space it’s easy to forget that over 100 people are potentially involved and that when I throw out my little semantic tics and catch-phrases I’m putting a set of assumptions, beliefs, and values out there too.  And sometimes I offend.

    Imagine going to a wedding or to your public library and setting up a soapbox in order to articulate your religious and political beliefs.  I know, some people do but it’s an intentional act most commonly done by people who are in the throes of psychosis.  It’s very easy to forget that these minute by minute comments are highly public and we are all redefining social interaction in an evolving and emerging context.

I heard a curious bit of information from my brother the other day.  He has a friend who is a captain in the Michigan State Police and she says that baby-boomer involvement with Facebook is creating a tsunami-like disruption in public order.  As boomers and x-ers connect with their former social contexts, ie., high school lovers, they are abandoning social norms and boundaries and creating all kinds of the predictable chaos and destruction that infidelity brings but on a very large and viral scale.  I’ll be watching for more news about that........