Good Friends Help You Hide The Bodies

Friends are good, obviously. People are pack animals at heart. Aristotle pointed that out and has been misquoted throughout history for doing so.

Most of us want to share good things, whether it’s an event or a joke. We share bad things, and generally feel better for having done so—either because sympathy helps or because we brought someone else down to our level of misery, depending on both the individual and the situation. (Don’t worry, all you darlings fall into the first category.)

Sometimes we go so long without seeing a particular friend that we forget how much we enjoy their company. Not literally, otherwise we wouldn’t still think of them as a friend. But as time passes, we do forget. We send cards on the holidays, but that’s a warm thought, a memory, not a conversation.

This week I joined both Facebook and Twitter. Twitter suits me, because I adore triviality and have opinions on everything. But I was startled by the social tsunami that is Facebook. Daunting at first, just to realize that all those people even remembered me enough to click a button, then flattering, now… I may even start clicking that button myself, though I haven’t yet. So far I still see the word “friend” as a noun, not a verb.

Today one of the friends I’ve known the longest (avoiding the incorrect “oldest friend”) drove over 100 miles just to visit us. It was a lovely day, pleasant, heartening and rejuvenating. Thank you, Cliff! But one of the first things I did was urge him to sign up on Facebook. Irony or karma?

I write a lot about how technology has changed human interaction, or how it hasn’t. It’ll be interesting to see how this whole networking thing plays out.