[Bill,
July 17, 2009]
Facebook friends
Everyone from my high school class seems to be showing up on Facebook. Initially, since I was in a place where all these people were long in the past, it was nice. Now, it's like high school again!
I'm kidding. Everyone is much nicer now that we're older. What I'm really commenting on is the tendency is to view them today through the lens of high school, and to watch, through Facebook, the lens changing, with the present superceding the past memories. Not quite writing over them, but altering them. The present changing the past. You know what it's like? It's like visiting a city you've imagined going to. You have a vision of it, and once you get there, it disappears. Regarding what's happening with Facebook, it's like some part of my past is disappearing, not imaginary as with the city, but memories distorted by time and lack of perspective at the time they occurred.
This has been happening a lot lately. Things I've carried with me for way too long -- suddenly retreat into the past. It's a good thing, for the most part.
My college friends are a different story. I've kept in touch with them longer. In most ways, I knew them better. They weren't quite so receded into the past, even if I hadn't seen them in decades. I kept in touch with them longer, so some of this perspective/memory work was already done.
So that's what I'm thinking about this morning.
I'm kidding. Everyone is much nicer now that we're older. What I'm really commenting on is the tendency is to view them today through the lens of high school, and to watch, through Facebook, the lens changing, with the present superceding the past memories. Not quite writing over them, but altering them. The present changing the past. You know what it's like? It's like visiting a city you've imagined going to. You have a vision of it, and once you get there, it disappears. Regarding what's happening with Facebook, it's like some part of my past is disappearing, not imaginary as with the city, but memories distorted by time and lack of perspective at the time they occurred.
This has been happening a lot lately. Things I've carried with me for way too long -- suddenly retreat into the past. It's a good thing, for the most part.
My college friends are a different story. I've kept in touch with them longer. In most ways, I knew them better. They weren't quite so receded into the past, even if I hadn't seen them in decades. I kept in touch with them longer, so some of this perspective/memory work was already done.
So that's what I'm thinking about this morning.