Dilemmas of Being a Crotchety Old Senior
Patrick Henry College has now joined the world of Facebook. Since many of my friends attend other universities, I joined up pretty quickly and started connecting with old pals. I can list my school friends, see my classmates, and join various oddly-named "groups" of people. It's fun.
Except the thing is, people can connect to me too. Which wasn't so bad, as long as it was people I expected to find me, or old friends I was excited to see still remembered me. But this has now created a dilemma - just who is a "friend"? Just because I know a person, does that make him or her my "friend"? Do I want my "friends" list to include every person I've ever met, or do I want to make it an expression of myself by limiting it to my closest circles?
This dilemma has only succeeded in making me feel crotchety in my old age. It's something that's been happening a lot recently, especially considering the fact that 1/3 of PHC's student body consists of freshmen... freshmen who look more and more like children every year (no offense if any are among my readership - I'm sure I was young then too). Certain of these freshmen have even taken to sending personalized campaign emails to people they don't even know. Like me. Sorry to break it to you pal, but if I don't know you, getting an email from you as if I do is probably not going to make me more inclined to vote for you.
In an even weirder scenario, I passed a person (a sophomore, it turns out) the other day who, as far as I can remember, I had never met before. But as we passed, this person called out a cheerful good morning. "Hey Carol, how are you doing today?" I wanted to respond with "and who the heck are you??" but managed a friendly "um, good... and yourself?" "Doing great, thanks!" was the response. Some of my younger friends later informed me of this person's identity - the name was familiar, but not the face, and I was still sure we had never met. And I'm sorry, but overly-familiar enthusiasm is really not going to gloss over that fact. I'm sure you're a nice person, but there are probably better ways of meeting me than scaring me into thinking I'm losing my memory.
...which brings me back to Facebook. I haven't yet found the heart to "reject" anyone's request of friendship, but seriously, if I have to consult my other friends to figure out who you are, you're probably not going to end up on my "friends" list very soon. Come actually be friends with me - not electronically, not by pretending you already know me - and maybe we'll see. Until then, I'm just going to pretend I don't know you... because I think I don't.
Except the thing is, people can connect to me too. Which wasn't so bad, as long as it was people I expected to find me, or old friends I was excited to see still remembered me. But this has now created a dilemma - just who is a "friend"? Just because I know a person, does that make him or her my "friend"? Do I want my "friends" list to include every person I've ever met, or do I want to make it an expression of myself by limiting it to my closest circles?
This dilemma has only succeeded in making me feel crotchety in my old age. It's something that's been happening a lot recently, especially considering the fact that 1/3 of PHC's student body consists of freshmen... freshmen who look more and more like children every year (no offense if any are among my readership - I'm sure I was young then too). Certain of these freshmen have even taken to sending personalized campaign emails to people they don't even know. Like me. Sorry to break it to you pal, but if I don't know you, getting an email from you as if I do is probably not going to make me more inclined to vote for you.
In an even weirder scenario, I passed a person (a sophomore, it turns out) the other day who, as far as I can remember, I had never met before. But as we passed, this person called out a cheerful good morning. "Hey Carol, how are you doing today?" I wanted to respond with "and who the heck are you??" but managed a friendly "um, good... and yourself?" "Doing great, thanks!" was the response. Some of my younger friends later informed me of this person's identity - the name was familiar, but not the face, and I was still sure we had never met. And I'm sorry, but overly-familiar enthusiasm is really not going to gloss over that fact. I'm sure you're a nice person, but there are probably better ways of meeting me than scaring me into thinking I'm losing my memory.
...which brings me back to Facebook. I haven't yet found the heart to "reject" anyone's request of friendship, but seriously, if I have to consult my other friends to figure out who you are, you're probably not going to end up on my "friends" list very soon. Come actually be friends with me - not electronically, not by pretending you already know me - and maybe we'll see. Until then, I'm just going to pretend I don't know you... because I think I don't.
1 Comments:
Hi Carol,
Found your blog via Clarice's blogring. Hope you don't mind me commenting :)
You might enjoy the blog kept up by my Philosophy professor. It is called Constructive Curmudgeon.
blessings!
Clarice's Marmi.
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