Once upon a time (or more specifically the mid-2000s), people needed a “.edu” email address to have a Facebook account. It was a simpler time. We’d live in our college bubbles and add as many people as we could as “friends” because we wanted to look popular.
Then Facebook opened its site to the rest of the world, and things changed. Parents, grandparents and long-time friends of the family suddenly burst onto the scene.
We’ve had to learn to accept them, and in general, it hasn’t been all that bad. Every now and then, however, the generational gap can slap you right in the face.
Following Tuesday’s presidential primaries, I was not in a great mood. Rick Santorum, a politician I absolutely cannot
stand, won all three of the states voting that night. As angrily as possibly, I changed the channel to “Family Guy” and logged on to Facebook.
The first status I see is some guy I sort of knew years ago when I was at another school. He was proudly celebrating Santorum’s victory, and I instantly knew I could not endure another nine months of him and those statuses.
So, I unfriended him.
Big deal, right? How many times have we seen a person we met maybe once pop up in the news feed saying something that makes us mad? How many times do we then promptly cut them from the friend list?
We don’t think much of it at the time. After all, they weren’t really our friends to begin with. Why continue the charade and be annoyed on my own page?
In addition to the unfriending, I made a status warning other Santorum fans they would face the same fate because, well, my temper got the best of me.
The people our age joked about the status. The people my parents’ age, however, were genuinely offended, and they let me know it.
Two people, who I love deeply and consider family, honestly thought I would cut them out of my life over Rick Santorum.
Of course, I would never do that. They have and will always mean a lot to me. I struggled for a long time to understand their reactions. I mean, what is the big deal? It’s just a Facebook status!
Then it hit me. To the older generation, friendship is more than clicking a button. These people have maintained long-standing friendships for years and certainly before Facebook. When they say “friend,” they mean it.
I wonder how many of our Facebook friends are actually our friends? How many would we really miss if we didn’t see them in a news feed? Actually, what’s wrong with our generation that we have reduced friendships to news feeds?
Perhaps we should take a lesson from the generation before ours. Can the friendships we’ve made in our lives survive without Facebook? I honestly don’t know, but I really doubt that many would.
That’s a sad thought, but let’s face it, it’s probably true. Maybe people our age should feel the gravity of the word “friend” before just accepting, then ending, those friendships.
I know I will.