Saving Face on Facebook

First off, let me just say that MySpace scares me so you won't find me posting pics and personal details to potential cyberstalkers. For people of a certain age (c'est moi) any of these social networking sites seemed to me to be a cyber naughty land of Internet affairs, false indentities, suspect chat rooms and suspicious IM friends. So,when my friend sent me an invitation to Facebook I struggled with my conscious and my commonsense. After all, no self respecting mommy-housewife would put herself out there for mass consumption in cyberspace? Right? Well, apparently I am way wrong on this one. Facebook has become cyber crack for many of my women friends with time on their hands while the kids are at school. It's a welcomed break from their daily routines and a chance to connect with friends but there is a downside. Facebook is also the big black virtual hole in suburbia sucking gobs of our limited free time as we type away tweaking our homepages adding pics of our kids, dogs, extended family and friends..you get the picture-actually if you're Facebooking then you're probably getting too much of the picture or should I say pictures.

For many of us, Facebook is like a giant billboard with bragging rights where we can show off just what precious, perfect, overachieving offspring we have as well as parade out our posse of friends for public view. It's also a source of unnecessary and needless details, the minutia of our daily lives posted in a constant data stream. Do I really want to know that someone is reorganizing her kitchen pantry or prepping for a playdate? But, there are some redeeming qualities as well. People really are reconnecting with long lost friends, extended family members, and making new friends. Facebook also is fast becoming the source of a new social pressure in suburbia- an unspoken competition to see who can rack up the most Facebook friends, achieve the most points playing pointless games such as "Which Sex in the City Girl are You?" So how many drinks have you received from Happy Hour? How many pieces of Flair have you collected? Ha, bet I can out Facebook ya or at least I'll try.
Well, got to go because I have to complete my Top Friends List to improve my popularity score. Hey, it is all about saving face on Facebook just like in real life. What do you know? Virtual reality really does mimic reality. Now if I could only become a You Tube celebrity. Any ideas?