I will defend Facebook to the death. I truly believe that it has an effect on relationships that has far more positives than negatives. But it creates some odd situations. Mainly, between my FB updates and my blog, I find that I have very little that is “new” to share with people. A typical conversation will go something like this:
 
“Did I tell you that _____?”
“yep, I saw it on your blog.”
 
“So the other day, I was ________ and ________happened. Oh wait. You probably saw that on Facebook.”
 
and so on. Now, this works well in that the people in my life know everything that is going on with me, and if they are bloggers and/or frequent Facebookers, then I have a pretty good idea of what is going on with them. But for my less loquacious friends, it means that I am probably not spending as much of that face-to-face time as I should asking them about THEIR lives and what is going on with them.
 
It struck me the other night when Tess and I were spending one of our few precious hours (before she had to go to sleep and then back to work) looking at Facebook together, with me giving her tips on how to grow her city in Metropolis. (my current Facebook game of choice, and now hers as well!) It was only the next day when I realized that I had not really taken the time to ask her about her own life . . . that’s the problem with being the vocal one, the one who puts herself “out there” . . . first of all, I forget to ask, and second of all, I forget that the person I’m spending time with has likely already invested a great deal of time in listening to what I have had to say . . . and that the least I can do is to invest some time in them in return . . .
 
So this is perhaps, more a problem with me than it is a Facebook problem . . . but it’s something to think about . . .