Rants & Raves - Facebook Version

I literally just sent an email to my co-bloggers saying that I had to write my blog tonight (writing this Tues. night, because I won't have time tomorrow) and that I really didn't like writing my blog when I was tired and cranky.  But, to my surprise when I logged in, two of my fellow bloggers had already gotten their rants out, so why not join the club?!  Now I can be cranky AND blog.  Lucky you.  :)

I'll start out with my facebook raves, just to get them out of the way - ha!  I absolutely love how you can find a dear friend whom you haven't seen in however many years and almost instantly be right where you left off.  You can catch up, see pictures, blah, blah, blah.  It's fantastic!  I also love that  you can get to know a completely different side of someone if they post status updates, pictures, and all of that fun stuff.  One last rave - you can keep up so much better with the important things in people's lives.... that is, if they or someone else updates about them.  Babies, milestones, losses, engagements, poop stories - so many things I would be missing if I weren't on facebook.

Now for my rants.  You find one of those dear friends I was just speaking about, and then you're so super excited to catch up with them.  You send them a message, and then... nothing.  For the most part, I have found people to be on par with my excitement level, but there are a few people that have never replied to messages.  First of all, I don't know why people send a friend request and then won't actually have a brief "hello, how are you, nice to see you." message trade.  I mean, do they just want to see my pictures?  Or do they just want to have another "friend" but not really be my friend?  And there are plenty of my "friends" who I've never initiated a conversation with, and neither have they.  That's totally fine.  But if someone writes me a message, I do my best to get back to them (although sometimes it takes me quite a while.  In fact, I better go return a few messages before this posts tomorrow!)  And another rant:  I feel like I'm missing out on things from half of my facebook friends.  I don't know if that's because I have too many friends and don't log on often enough to see everything??  Or do I have some setting out of whack?  I've only blocked status updates from one person.  No, I don't think it's anyone who's ever read this blog.  Anyway, I guess I just need to look into that.  I wish I had a filter to just show me the interesting posts, though.  And do you ever wonder if anyone has you blocked?  Oh, and just one more rant - I really like to avoid hot topics on facebook.  People get all crazy and stuff and nobody can ever tell your tone, etc.  Plus, the way I would approach things with one person may be totally different than the way I would with another.  Not that my message or point would vary, but I don't believe everyone receives things the same way.  And I don't believe people will listen if they are feeling attacked.  It's making me uncomfortable just thinking about it.    

I used to think I was a great multi-tasker, but I've come to realize that may not be so true.  I've been trying to write this and watch American Idol at the same time.  I have to keep pausing it to think or rewind to watch something I missed.  I saw a study a while back that said women aren't actually better at multi-tasking like we've been bragging about all these years.  Our brains are just able to switch back and forth from one thing to another much more quickly than our male counterparts.  Makes sense to me.  And that had absolutely nothing to do with my facebook rants.  But that can go in to the rave category - I love how random people can be on facebook.  Love it!