Tuesday 4 May 2010

Of time and old friendships

I was going through Facebook recently, seeing status of my friends, getting in touch with some long estranged ones too. I will probably spout thundering clichés, so be indulgent. I felt a weird feeling of self-alienation, as if my life and theirs had been taken by legions of doppelgängers. I met most of the friends I still have in late childhood or teenage. I now see them sporadically, or not at all, I only know about them from their Facebook status and their pictures. Most of them, I haven't seen in years. I remember them as teenagers and young adults, people with whom I spent many carefree years of my life. Now many are married, some are divorced, many have children, cats, dogs, what have you. And it just feels strange. I guess I must be just as alien to them, the boy growing up in Chicoutimi who ended up marrying an Englishwoman and living on the other side of the Atlantic.

3 comments:

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Yes the world of Facebook is strange isn't it?! It took me quite a while to warm up to it, and yet I still haven't grown fond enough of it to say that I actually like it. Mine became a strange brew of old classmates that I haven't seen in years (nor do I care to now), new friends that I've made on-line and actually met in person or have stayed in contact with for several years now, and relatives. All my different compartments for friends and family now cohabitate quite nicely on FB. There is no cohesiveness to the different sub-groups what-so-ever. The differences that I sought to keep separate for so long, I now leave them there in the open, exposed for all to see, and dare anyone of them to pass judgment on another. Yet they never do. They each just reside there peacefully minding their own business and mine. It's the anti-social way to be social in the new techno-world that we live in. We can now keep up with everyone we've ever known without ever really dealing with them in person. It's a strange place indeed!

PJ said...

Facebook est un drôle de monde. Surtout lorsque tu en apprends sur tes camarades du secondaire...

Anonymous said...

Maybe i can be here far away, showing you I care, telling you that i couldnt forget you if I tried. Or maybe its an awful idea.