To Facebook or Not to Facebook

I have always been someone who maintains this odd tension between being trendy and being counter-trendy. With certain things, especially techie kind of things, I like to come across as one in-the-know. Up with the times. But with other things, I hate the possibility that I may come across as a trend follower, so I strongly avoid jumping on the bandwagon.

For example, in high school I prided myself as being someone who shopped at thrift stores and not at the trendy GAP. (Of course, my flopping between being a hippy or a poser-skater, was a trend in itself in my small town. But the point being, at the time, I felt it important to "be my own person". To not be swayed by the rules of the pack regarding fashion.) Yet, I can remember when the internet began to get going and we were all given school email accounts; but, then this Hotmail thing, and then later MSN IM, came up and I was quick to get on board with those.

Like I said, I kind of contradict myself. These days, I am avoiding looking into any form of tattoo based soley on the fact that it is too trendy. Yet, I so quickly buy into various products available at Shopper's Drug Mart or my local health food section (other items that could also be classed as trendy).

Now take MySpace. As many of you would know, I am still a fairly new partaker in this whole thing. But, that is not because I was out of the loop. No no. It was because I regarded it as a trend to be avoided. It's too cool. And I am too cool to let myself in on things that are so cool. (When you put it like that, it doesn't make much sense, does it?)

In the end, I joined MySpace to get in on the photos. With all of my traveling, I have stopped taking a camera and have become somewhat dependent on others to document the trips. There was a particular trip from last year that I was wanting photos from and I remembered that I could get these from one of the team member's MySpace. After I signed up, however, her photos from that trip were no where to be found! And now I have been sucked into this passtime of comment reading and writing, profile updating, song changing and now, blogging!!

And all of this brings me to my subject. This whole Facebook thing has been floating around now for awhile and I haven't signed up yet. Again, it's not because I am out of the loop. Not only is it "too trendy", there's also the problem of time management with all of this stuff. How much more time can I possibly spend online? Or the better question, how much more time should I spend online?

MySpace has ended up being a neat way to reconnect with people and apparently Facebook is even better at that (or so I've heard). Reconnecting with people is always a nice thing. Especially when friends end up all over the map. I've actually been doing a lot of reconnecting lately, whether it be electronically, or face to face. In fact, since moving back to the Beach, I have run into so many people, especially at the gym. Just tonight even, I ran into a guy I hadn't seen for nearly ten years! I was also able to see an old friend of mine recently (someone I hadn't seen since 1999) and we set it all up through MySpace and MSN. (Mind you, it was her initiation of writing me a real, good ol' fashioned snail mail Christmas letter that helped me find her to begin with.)

So, here I have another Facebook invitation in my inbox. I have previously deleted so many (so sorry to all of you--it wasn't personal, just my aversion to trends). And this one is from someone who I have completely lost touch with and I would love to get it back! Hmm...

~boredatthebeach