I was cajoled into creating a Facebook account.  I was hesitant, even resistant, for a number of reasons, not the least of which, as quickly confirmed after my first 24 hours, the time suckage that occurs while trying to find enough friends to not feel like a social pariah.

Once "friends" are found you (have to) spend time catching up, checking out their photos, poaching their friend lists for people you can ask to be your friend - hours pass and you realize your blood sugar has bottomed out because you haven't eaten since this morning (not to mention that your ass has fallen asleep).

I'm sure I'm hardly the first person to mention the time lost to Facebook (or MySpace or browsing Amazon or watching movies on Netflix or...).  My concern is principles, and how I've undermined my own in hopes of fulfilling an urge brought on by nostalgia (I refrain from using the word longing because it's such a ridiculous overstatement).   Nostalgia is a pathetic emotion, lacking the depth of sorrow, the pain of regret, or the warmth of felicity, instead mixing them together into a tasteless sentimental mush of memories. 

A friend had closed his Facebook account because people had friend requested him, then never wrote again.  He said they were being, to use a word from when we were in high school, fake.  It no doubt hurt his feelings; maybe (he thought) he was responding in some weird way that had put people off.

I don't know much about social networking sites, but I know people, and I told him that they weren't rejecting him at all.  For many people Facebook isn't people saying, "Hey, I know you, and you, and you."  It's about people saying, "Hey, you know me, and you know me, and you know me."  

The past is an anchor.  I believe that.  Yeah, yeah, if it wasn't for the past we wouldn't be here.  But that's as much a  result of simple chronology as anything else: I don't have to worship Thursday to appreciate Friday.   I don't have to praise June to love July.  

Facebook is great fun, but you shouldn't treat it as your life.  Maybe it would help to think of it as a cocktail party - you walk around, you say hi, mingle some more, then go home.