Facebook, MySpace et al (aka the 'Geez I'm just old' thread)

You'd be aright, but the ones with missing teeth . . . :-X

 

I've got all my teeth.
Maybe even a few extras.

 

Does Flipper like that?

 

I use e-mail for that. Keeps things simpler.

I did register at myspace for a story last year, when I thought you had to be registered to see profiles. Got what I needed for the story. Couldn't tell you what my user name and password were.

 

That's classified information.

 

To whoever said people go on MySpace and Facebook to be seen: Of course they do.

In our society, there is part of us that yearns for celebrity, and we can gain celebrity in our own little world through the sites. That's my amateur psychoanalysis.

Piotr, even though I have a stellar memory, I can't remember every person's e-mail address, screen name, cell phone number (don't always toss them in my phone), etc. On Facebook, you can put up your address to be seen only by your friends. Easier for me to go through that to send out Christmas cards than keep the information in a small black address book that I'll likely lose or never update.

And LJB, people do go out and make friends, though I will agree with you that the AIM/MySpace generation has shittier social/survival skills due to the Internet crutch.

 

I don't know, I've been on Facebook for about two months and I can't count the number of friends I now talk to on a regular basis who I had lost contact with years ago. My best friend from high school is one of them, a bunch of people I worked with in university too, it's just great. Beyond that, yeah there's some athletes around here I use it to talk to regularly as well.

 

Well, considering just about every football and basketball player at the school I cover has a page, it can be useful, especially if I'm having trouble getting in touch with one of them.

 

Just kidding Flag.

I know of a few prep and recruiting writers who have accounts for the very same reason.

 

I figured as much.

 

After reading the thread today, I decided to hit MySpace. I opened an account because a friend had a MySpace page. But I hadn't bothered to do so much as browse around my own homepage.

When I saw that you could hunt down old classmates, I decided to give it a shot. I came across two people. One is an old almost-flame type who is batshit insane. I figure my life is pretty boring. So I dropped her a line expecting some wild tale about how she had to have three heart transplants because the fish at Long John Silver's had mercury in it. (She's a bit of a hypochondriac, in addition to some other mental issues.)

Anyway, I also e-mailed a guy I haven't talked to in almost 12 years. I knew where he was living, but I had never spoken with anyone who could put me in touch with him. So, I find him on MySpace. After running some errands, I walk into the house and get a call. It's him. Apparently, he's on MySpace because he wants to meet people. He is in the midst of a divorce. It sounds pretty messy. I'm talking about something, and he starts a story about how his neighbor approached him a few days ago and told him that his wife had given the neighbor some stuff. I'm thinking that she just gave the neighbor valuables that she didn't want to take with her. But that didn't make sense. So, when he says the neighbor didn't like the girl and had returned the stuff, I ask what it was. He wasn't all that clear. But he assured me that it was something embarrassing, but nothing bad or anything. He said she had thought it was something that might cause him harm. So, I'm suddenly remembering how this guy was always said to be slightly psycho. But I had never seen that manifest itself in his behavior. But I'm almost certain he was talking about a gun, about how he had his guns back and that his wife gave them to a neighbor because she thought he might shoot himself.

Anyway, what the fuck is up with this? According to the TV media, I was supposed to be getting a blow job from an 18-year-old cheerleader? Now I've become the guy who maybe is helping a long lost friend cope with depression.

 

You expected 18-year-old attention seeking whores, which, like you said, is usually what is heard of.

You got pyschos, weirdos, depression cases.

I rest my fucking case.