Facebook is supposed to make social interaction easier. You post status updates and photos. All of your friends see them. Your news feed shows you everything your friends have been doing lately. It makes sense: friends update each other all the time. We have a central hub that shows what's happening in each others' lives.
But more and more, I find that Facebook gives me less of a reason to talk to friends, or to catch up with those I haven't seen in a while. Facebook has taken on the effort of maintaining relationships so we don't have to.
Before Facebook, if I wanted to ask a friend how she's doing at her new job, I'd pick up the phone and call her. Or we'd hang out sometime and chat. With Facebook, all I have to do is read her status updates to know if she likes her job or not.
It's not just status updates. I don't have to remember birthdays anymore. We don't print photos and share them. Job promotions, accomplishments, and even wedding announcements are on my news feed before I talk to the person offline.
But reading a Facebook update is not the same as talking to the person and, for some reason, there's still an unwritten rule about Facebook conversations crossing over into "real life." That leaves us in an odd place.
Say I wish a friend happy birthday on Facebook. Then I see that friend over the weekend. Does my birthday message on Facebook replace me saying happy birthday in person? If I say happy birthday in person after saying it on Facebook, am I repeating myself? Should I mention the Facebook message when we talk in person? Or is that a faux pas?
Maybe I'm over-thinking it, but Facebook is changing the way people interact and I don't think it's an improvement.
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