Seems to me that I'm not the only one who feels Facebook is a replacement for friendships. My friend, Nick sent me this video from the CBS morning show. It's all about friendships and how to keep them strong. Skip to the 3:55 mark (after the commercial) to watch the part about Facebook.
Every week I post about the things I've done and the friends I've met for dinner. It may seem boring to you, but to me everything else seems boring. We bbm, we text, we email, we ichat, we skype, we IM, we communicate in all these different ways, but we don't actually put in face time with the ones we really care about. Why? Are we really so busy?
Maintaining friendships should not be so hard. And, if they are, maybe they aren't friendships worth maintaining? Is it that much of a challenge to ask a friend to meet you for coffee on a Saturday? I mean, come on, meeting for coffee is even putting in the bare minimum when it comes to friendship maintenance. How about asking a friend to take a gym class with you? I always feel like I'm missing out when my friends go to the gym, being that I'm not a member, but it's a great way to keep friendships while keeping fit!
We choose to have 1,578 (random number but I think had close to that, and I'm not bragging, I actually think it's weird) friends on Facebook and yet when it comes down to the few most important ones in our live we can't seem to make the time. Our Facebook friendships have become a sad excuse for our real ones.
If I had to bet, I'd say you can probably count on two hands (or one) the number of friends that actually mean something to you. If you're as lucky as I am to have the most amazing friends in the world, then pick up the phone and take some initiative. Like The Beatles once said, "I get by with a little help from my friends."
