Tried and True

The obvious first stop for prime time-wasting.

I am loathe to admit that I probably spend several hours a day on Facebook. Not all at once mind you...but at several points throughout the day I just can't keep myself from clicking on that lower case blue F on my bookmark list. That little red notification flag is complete and total validation that you are a person of real import in the land of the internets!

Someone needed to tell you something! Red Flag!! How much more addicting can it get??

Of course Facebook is not just a good place to waste a few checking on your notifications. There's the old News Feed where you can check up people's statuses (status'? stati?), read the links that people have posted, and of course look at pictures.

I have looked through albums upon albums posted by complete strangers. Just because I can. (Be careful what you put out there kiddies!) The most entertaining ones are as follows:

1. The wedding album: (Variation: the engagement album.) Everyone always looks so happy at weddings! And its super fun to judge people on their choice of wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses, flowers, rings, how drunk people got, etc. Some times I feel like a bad person for making such judgments on what is supposed to be the happiest day of these people's lives. But then I remember, who cares? They're complete strangers! Judge away!


2. The vacation album: Always a good way to pass a few. I find it highly amusing that everyone who goes to Paris has a picture in front of the Arc de Triomphe, everyone who goes to Rome has a picture of the Colosseum, everyone who goes to the London has that blurry picture of the Houses of Parliament taken from the top of the Eye. Travel photos...the great global equalizer.

3. The baby album: Kids are cute. The end.

4. The show album: I work in theatre. Most of my friends are into theatre. Thus, that album of your "Fiddler on the Roof" stint at the Paduca Playhouse? Seen it. Those snapshots of your non-Eq "Oliver" tour? Check. All those backstage photos from whatever drafty barn is putting on "West Side Story" this summer? Yup, I've paged through them all. Random show pics....good times.

5. And of course the I-just-got-a-scanner-and-found-this-old-box-of-pictures-at-my-mom's-house album: Perhaps the funniest of them all. God bless the advent of the home scanner. How else would I be able to snort Fresca onto my keyboard whilst appearing to be reading a very important document?

And yet, for all the time I spend on Facebook, I just can NOT bring myself to grow a Happy Farm, take that "What Michael Jackson song represents you?" quiz, or make a list of the 25 things that...blah, blah, blah.

Nope, I'm a Facebook purist. And yes, I'm aware of that severe contradiction in terms.