Sunday, December 14, 2008

The less friends you have on facebook the more relational you must be!


I keep thinking "the less friends you have on facebook the more relational you must be"

What is it with facebook that is so captivating yet also slightly disturbing, I had a facebook cull the other day, I wiped 100 "friends" out in 15 minutes, then I felt bad.......

It feels a bit like school days in my head! the more friends you have the more popular you must be, therefore that somehow makes you a better person.... I don't like that but it's a game my ego plays

"I get by with a little help from my friends."
- John Lennon

This is true but is facebook a friendship network? On one level yes but on another, more surface, level it is just a connecting and networking tool.

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."
- Bible: Ecclesiastes

A real friend to me is someone who is there to help me when I fall, maybe I should only be friends on facebook with those people.... people who help me survive, people who help me make it through life.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis

I truly value friendship, in fact my value of it has grown since I moved away from so many of my friends in England. Distance separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to friendship.

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."
- Socrates, Greek Philosopher

4 comments:

Dave Carrol said...

Is it good or bad that I checked to see if I made the purge?

Haha

Mimosa said...

Hey Brian! So very true distance sorts out the wheat from the chaff! It can be a bit painful process sometimes too! (to me at least) But it's good. Very necessary. You know who really are there for you and so. I value friendship enormously as well!

Facebook for me is just a networking tool, it's a bit like an address book and it's been cool to be re-united with some old friends or people I went to school with. But the amount of people there as my "friends" does limit what I put on, as all of them are not close at all. A bit of clean up every now is a good idea!

By the way, just wanted to share a passage with you guys in the start of this new phase!!! It's Nehemiah 2:20. I found it really encouraging!

Best xx Mimosa

Anonymous said...

Hi Brian,

I was wondering about this back in September, and wrote:

" ...it is increasingly true that, to be a person in the physical world, you need to be one in the virtual world too. How do we ensure that ... the virtual supports, rather than supplants, the physical?"

For example, stewarding on the door on a Sunday, how many people can you greet based on what you know has been happening to them during the week on FB? But at the same time, advocate for those who are not online and increasingly miss out on "e-mail only" means of communication.

(Full post at http://fromnd.blogspot.com/2008/09/hubs-in-virtual-world.html)

Mr Christopher said...

I know just what you mean! I lacked the will to even make the initial cull...

http://edwinsraisin.blogspot.com/2009/06/facebook-friends-cull-dilemma.html