Life, Christmas Plans, and a Facebook question

Point 1: Life. Life is normal. Busy, fun, stressful, exciting, crazy, and just um, normal. We got another goat, a little buck named Darcy. He came from the Smith’s, and is Leepers replacement. He is really cute and fun, and fallows us anywhere we will let him go like a little dog, right at our heels, waiting to be petted.

In the livingroom Colin has gotten up some of the dry wall, and we are ever moving ahead. The dry wall has been a very interesting experience (okay, that is the nice way to say it, really it has been a pain in the neck, but we won’t go there :) Because this is an old house, and because it was moved to this location from somewhere else, it has several issues that make remolding difficult. For instance, the floor in the livingroom slops from one side of the room to the other, and the ceiling, being plaster and lathe (and sagging slightly), is a different hight, at each measurement. All of this combined, means that you measure for your piece of sheet rock, cut it, and then go to put it up, and find that you can’t get the top of it to the wall because it is stuck against the ceiling! So you take it down again and cut off enough to get past the ceiling, get the piece to the wall, pause to consider the gap that now exists at the top, and wonder what this room will look like with wide trim around the ceiling instead of narrow. Overall this has been a challenging, learning experience, and has given us plenty of stories to tell.
Bottom line: If you are planning on remolding anything, count on it taking at least twice as long as you think it will, and even longer if it is an old house. And keep a good sense of humor with you at all times, it is essential! :)

Point 2: Christmas Plans. We are staying home for Christmas this year. My grandparents from Ohio will be coming in, and we have all of Colin’s family here in town. It is both really nice and really crazy to have so many relatives close by. It means that you get to see people more often, but it also means that there are lots of places to be on holidays. Christmas eve we will see Dad C’s side of the family for dinner, Christmas Day we will have our Christmas, go to my parents and have Christmas with them, and then go the Colin’s parents and have dinner with Mom C’s side of the family. The day after Christmas, we will go back to my parents and open presents with grandpa and grandma who will have arrived sometime in the wee hours of the morning after diving most of the night. Doesn’t this sound like a great Christmas!!!

Point 3: A Facebook question. For those of you who know me and my stand on Facebook, this point has aroused your curiosity and you may have even skipped Points 1 & 2 just to see what this was all about first. That is not really fair since this is Point 3, and not Point 1. However, what’s done is done, and rather than torment you by delaying getting to the point of Point 3 (which I could do for quite a while [insert evil grin]), I will move a head.

I must say first, that my question is not my own, but it has to do with one of my biggest oppositions to Facebook. The question actually comes from one middle aged lady talking to another middle aged lady in a local used book store. I was standing a few feet away looking through some books and caught this part of the conversation.

Lady 1 “Well we need to get going, but it has been so good to see you again. I am so glad you are on Facebook, it will be so easy now to keep it touch now!”

Lady 2 “Yah, it will. Isn’t technology amazing! My husband talks with people in different countries all the time now, he knows people in England a Romania that he talks with regularly.”

Lady 1 “It’s just incredible, we can keep up with all the people that live to far away to see. Like the B’s, you remember them? They move to N and since we are in W it is just too far to try and get together, but we Facebook all the time.”

Lady 2 “I like how you can share so much, pictures and stuff I mean.”

Lady 1, with slight hesitation. “Do you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls?”

Up until now I have not really been paying a whole lot of attention to with is being said. Because these two ladies are standing on the other side of the bookshelf, I hear what they are saying wether I want to or not. At this point however, I stop looking at books and deliberately listen.

Lady 2, after a pause, “I don’t know, I guess not. I mean they put it up there for everyone to see right?”

Lady 1 “Yah, I guess so.”

Since I can not find the book I am after I move to a different section of the store, but in my head that questions keeps playing over and over. “Do you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls?” At first I was inclined to agree with Lady 2. Hey, they put it out there, if they don’t want it talked about, they shouldn’t put it up. This is true, however, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is more to it than just that. Let me use a real life example (minus names and issues) to explain what I mean.

I am not on Facebook, but many of my friends are. One day I get a phone call.

“Have you heard what so-and-so has up on their facebook page?”
“No”
“It says -------. Can you believe it?”
“They can’t be serious.”
“I don’t know, why else would they post it for everyone to see?”
“I don’t know, but -------- doesn’t seem possible.”
“I know, but there is this, and this, and this, and so-and-so said this, so maybe they mean it.”
“Hum, have you talked to so-and-so? Maybe they know more.”
“No, I am so upset I don’t know what to do.”

The conversation was much longer, but you get the point. A rumor was started, someone was hurt, and yes gossiping was occurring. If this was only a one time thing, I might still agree with Lady 2, setting this issue aside as “the one bad against the many good”. But it is not. There have been many times when someone has come to me with the latest juicy details off FB, which they communicate in lowered tones. Yes, someone did post it on their wall for all to see, but the way that the information is being passed on to me, is not right. It is gossiping, and in one way, I believe that gossiping is what facebook promotes. Now before you facebookers out there get mad at me, I challenge you to think about this issue. I very rarely hear positive things passed along from those who are on FB to those aren’t, but I hear many shocking, startling, hurtful, upsetting, and angering things. And I see many people who are on FB, only so that they can know as much about everyone else’s lives as possible. Isn’t that the same as the town gossip of old who was always on the party phone line so that she could be the first to know everything and pass it on? Amazingly she is never viewed as “keeping in touch”, but as sticking her nose in other peoples business. So, I want to know what you all think, those of you who are one facebook, and those of you who aren’t. Please, I don’t want to know why you are on FB, what is great about it, or how many friends you have. I only want to know “if you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls” whether or not FB adds to gossiping, and how we, as Christians (facebookers or not) should deal with this issue.

As a final note, I would like to add this (as a bon for those who are saying that they will never read my blog again :) I do think that FB can be used well in certain circumstances. I don’t have time to go into that, and other issues now, but may in the future. I do not hate facebookers, most of my closest friends are on FB, but I do firmly believe that there are many dangers with FB that need to be considered.

So, until next time,

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Rachel