I have a problem with Facebook, and it’s Walt’s fault

I joined Facebook almost a year ago, if I remember correctly. I joined as an exercise for work. I was hearing a lot about how Facebook and similar social networking tools could be used within a corporation as a learning and collaboration tool. I understood the theory, but I wanted to see how well it was implemented. Could I really figure out some way to bend it to fit our corporate environment? The answer, I swiftly realized, was “no.”

So my profile sat there. I checked in on it every once in a while, connected with a couple online acquaintances and colleagues, and looked at some of the applications to see if anything struck me as useful. Every once in a while I’d see something intriguing, but nothing that I wanted to spend much time with.

Connecting with a few friends from church spurred some activity. It was fun to learn a little more about their lives as they chose to summarize it in their profiles. But for the most part, I spent my free time on other projects.

Then Walt showed up.

Walt led the church youth group I was in during high school. He also has an amazing talent for keeping in touch with people. When he created the Facebook group for our old youth group members (and yes, I mean old… it’s been 20+ years, sadly), I joined. By the end of that week, I was catching up with 25 people I haven’t seen in 20 years. Then the photos showed up. Photos like this one (those are approximately 20 marshmallows in each mouth):

I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. I’m talking to people I haven’t seen in decades, and it’s like I just spoke to them yesterday; we’re picking up right where we left off. The group is continuing to grow.

Now I have a problem. I’m spending all my time on Facebook. I’m constantly checking to see who else has joined, or what photos have been uploaded, or what comments people are making. It’s getting out of hand. I gotta step away, or I’m not going to get anything else done. The lawn’s not going to mow itself!

It’s a lot of fun, though. This is a group of people I genuinely care about and have missed (as opposed to almost everyone else I knew in high school).

Hey, Walt… thanks for the new addiction. I sincerely appreciate it. My wife would like to thank you, too… next time you see her, guard your shins.

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