Facing Facebook

Well I am back on Facebook. The only thing up in the air is am I going to get back on Twitter? I used to be all over both of them and then frankly got bored with them. I have this unfulfilled question lingering in my mind that relates to whether or not my not being on Facebook and Twitter is costing me business. Is someone going to hire a Realtor who is so techno-challenged that they are not on Facebook and Twitter? One of the main reasons that I BLOG is related to that if I were honest. I do these little test Googles to see where I come up when I query Realtors for Tallahassee, Florida. I guess I should be happy that I come up, out of 2,380,000 hits at #42. Man, I want to come up on the first page. I have only done that one or two times.

I have begged people to bookmark me and visit my website whether they need to or not. I have meta-tagged myself to oblivion. That is a little process on the website that is sort of like word association. It is supposed to drive me to the top of Google searches. I suppose that I am quite happy with my web presence. However, is it bringing me loads of business? Not so much. Out of 100 clients I have attracted I would have to say that 98 of them came from some kind soul referring them to me. So I BLOG just to fulfill this endemic proclivity that I have to want to express myself in the written form.

Back to Facebook. I really think that I am too old to be on Facebook (FB). Most of the people on FB post up things that are enormously mundane. " I just clipped my toenails. Now I am going to bed, after I visit the potty." Post something clever and/or relevant to something important. I have also posted up my own stuff and been too controversial. Making a comment about a particular political candidate, a sports team or a current event can bring down the scourges of the simple minded on you. To wit: I lost a friend over Michael Jackson. They had posted up some trite euphemism about how truly wonderful Jacko the Whacko was after he gorked himself to wherever they send child molesters in the hereafter. I really don't think they appreciated it when I told all my friends that I really didn't give a damn about Jackson doing himself in. He was a child molester. The world is a better place. Not good stuff to put up on your FB page. I had some of my imaginary FB friends read me the riot act. So I got off and remained off for a little over a year.

So I have to ask myself why I am so double-minded about this matter? I believe it goes back to my youth. I was raised on a farm in southern West Virginia. We had no concept of indoor plumbing. The privy outhouse seemed quite functional for all of our bio-needs. We always had electricity but not a phone. I remember clear as a bell when my Dad allowed us to get a phone. People could actually call us up and speak with us now. Nowadays we have 3 phones in our home, all cordless. My wife has a cell and I have one. I have a fax line and a line for my internet. I am filthy with lines of communication.

Yet I think back to that big black phone the size of a horses leg sitting on the table in the corner there in that little farmhouse in Hillsdale, West Virginia. Along with it was my mother or my grandmother sitting with the receiver pressed against their ear and the speaker covered with a towel held firmly in place by their free hand. What were they doing? Why they were eavesdropping. Life was boring. Hardly anyone had a TV and if you did programming stunk. We had a party line as our phone service. We shared a line with 8-10 neighbors. My grandmother and mother found it scintillatingly interesting to hear Mrs. Lugar and Mrs. Tomlinson talk about their vegetable gardens.

That, my friends, is the appeal of Facebook. We are on this big internet party line. People revealing all sorts of inner thoughts. Most of it mind-numbingly boring. However, we like eavesdropping. Mary's baby is adorable. It just spit up on her. Perry has a new cocker spaniel. If you like you can look at the 500 photos that he has uploaded onto his page. Susie has a new job. Mike just got a divorce.

I guess at the root of it all is a harmless interest in our fellow human beings. Somehow we touch each other. Sometimes it is just nice to know that there is someone else out there doing the same things that you are doing. So, what's the harm? Anyone that gets scary you can simply block and voila, no more Mike. I think I am back to stay this time. Perhaps I will do much less contributing and a lot more reading just to stay in touch with people for the most part that mean a lot to me.