Facebook...friend or foe?

I joined facebook aka the stalker network almost 1 year ago. The only reason I joined was to keep up to date with a close friend over in Iraq. He was doing his service for our country and I am grateful for that. And I care about him. So, I joined to keep in contact with him.

So many months later and...I am just like everyone else. I am addicted, and frustrated by Scramble. I trade make believe plants assuming rain forest is being saved in some magical, mystery location out in the mist somewhere. My entourage rolls 40+ deep. And I keep getting friend requests.
OMG, I'm like popular!

So what's the problem?

Lately, it seems the most random people are sending me friend requests. There are moments where it's like being in high school all over again with a new techno twist.

I'll admit it's kind of cool to see some of the people. Get an idea what they've been up to. Many were actual friends of mine at one point in time. Yet, there's a slightly different group that have been "requesting" me. You remember, those people who didn't really speak to you in high school or even acknowledge that you were human. Those people are coming out of the proverbial facebook woodwork and requesting me as a friend. It's weird.

I realize and am not proud of the fact that I added someone the other day for purely selfish, regressive reasons. She was one of those people in high school that was just sort of mystical. She was cool on her own terms and ran around or so I assumed with the best of them. She even knew who I was then, although we didn't ever hang out. But, she wasn't rude or callous either. She was cool! All around.

I accepted her as a friend. I think part of me regressed to, "Hey, I must be cool too. She wants to be my friend." Then reality set in! I don't really care that she is my "friend" on facebook. I don't care that she wasn't really my friend in high school. Honestly, I don't really care either way about her. I haven't even written to say hello to her. And yet she now gets little anecdotal updates about me. So what was the point?

A few more requests have since rolled in. These from people whom I suspect only make the request because they see my name or affiliation with the high school on someone else's page. I'm not sure what the appeal is...to have everyone you went to school with a hundred years ago be your "facebook friend."

Don't get me wrong. There are certainly people on the site that I would like to reconnect with or just see what they're up to. But, I don't go actively seeking out and inviting people to be my friend just because I knew them when....
And there's others that I could care two flies about.
So what is the draw?

I don't get it!

How did this little piece of social networking software become so important to my life? Why does it make me regress and feel 15 again?
Why do so many others on it find the need to be my friend?

My real friends know who I am. They know what I am up to. And even if a long time passes they have the balls to drop a letter, an email, or call me up to discover what I am doing with my life.

I love my friends with all my heart and soul! And while some are certainly better friends than others, they all have their place and their reason for being my friend.
And they don't need an invitation!

Which in hindsight just makes the whole facebook issue seem, well...like high school! And I am sooooo over high school!


P.S. For those of you I have actively sought out on facebook...there are a few of you...rest assured it's because I was genuinely interested.