So now I have a Facebook account.  This seems strange, odd, really odd, like it’s something I would have done in high school, but is just beyond me now. Yet two of my friends – one a slight bit older and one a slight bit younger – have assured me that this is a thing I need to do. “The day is coming,” they both warned, “that you will need an account.  Your kids will be out there.  You want to be out there and you have to be ready.”

This, too, I struggle with.  Not that my kids will be “out there,” necessarily, but what being out there means.  Another step.   Another step towards peers.  Another step away from family.  Let me just confess right now–if your incredible intuitive skills haven’t already pegged it–that this whole kid-growing up, mom-letting-go thing is not going well for me.  It is far harder than I imagined and happening far sooner than I expected. But here we are, with time moving swiftly and me treading water, wondering how we got here so fast.  I am intensely aware that I sound like a tired cliché, but I could swear that we were just reading The Magic Tree House series.  Okay, sure, we moved on to Harry and Ron and Hermoine, but Facebook? How can it be?  No matter; time keeps moving and so here we are.  But, I digress.

Here’s what’s even stranger than the fact that I have joined the thousands in this weirdly-intimate-at-arms-length online community:  there’s a good chance that many of you, my friends, are among those thousands.  You are poking and writing on people’s walls and all sorts of other things none of us ever heard of back when fraternities still had taps in the basement.  You’ve just never mentioned it, and why would you?  What on earth am I going to write on your wall?

As surprised as I am to find that Facebook is not only for tween and teens and young bucks who think they’re all grown-up but really aren’t (otherwise why would they post that completely inebriated photo?), I’m not at all surprised that we are all drawn to this new type of communication.  We’re at an interesting juncture in history, I think, where it’s becoming easier and easier to communicate:  in an instant we can shoot someone a message, send them a text, or collect “top friends” by the dozens.  At the same time, it’s getting harder and harder to forge real relationships, based on depth and trust and shared actual (vs. virtual) experiences.  It will be interesting to see where this takes us, and our kids, don’t you think?

-Kirsetin