My opinion? Less is more.

I have a confession to make. I have a love/hate relationship with facebook. For the most part, I really enjoy it. I love catching up with old classmates and airline friends. I enjoy being able to communicate with others in this new, virtual reality called social media.


Facebook friends are different than "real" friends, although sometimes they are real friends too! My facebook friends seem to fall into different categories. There are the fb friends that you don't really know. They were acquaintances long ago at school or at work. It's interesting to catch up with them and see how their lives turned out. Sometimes you learn that someone whom you barely knew actually has a lot in common with you now and you become close online friends...maybe even getting together in real life.


Then there are the friends that you used to be close to at one time in your life and for one reason or another you lost touch. You are excited to find them on facebook and have high hopes for renewing your friendship. For one reason or another though, you find that the friendship has fizzled. You just don't have much in common anymore. They've changed...or you've changed. You wish them a happy birthday on facebook but other than that, you really don't communicate at all.


And then of course, there are the "real" friends. The ones that comment and send messages and actually seem interested in you. Sadly, at least for me, these friends are in the minority. 


And then there are the people who constantly update their status. I call them the "sharers."


You know the ones I mean...the ones who want to share every single thing they do. The ones who share personal information. The ones who post about how much they LOVE their boyfriend or spouse...all the time. The ones who use their phones to check in every single place they go. "So and so is at Publix"...."So and so is at ____ Bank"...."So and so is at YMCA"..."So and so is at _______ Bridge."


I love all my facebook friends - even the ones that never really communicate at all. I know you're there and you know I'm there. I guess if we ever really have something to say, we'll communicate. But ya'll? My friends who "share" stuff? Ummm, how can I say this? TMI?


Less is more.


Really. It IS possible to share too much. It really is. Seriously...does anyone really need to know that you're going to the bank? Does anyone really care?


Don't get me wrong - I like status updates. It's nice to know what's going on in your life. Sort of. I mean...yes, update. But not everything...and not all the time. Constantly. I think that if you are "checking in" more than once or twice a day, you're probably overdoing it. And there are good check-ins and bad check-ins. If you are on vacation in Rome and checking in from the Coliseum? That's a good check-in. If you're running errands and checking in from Starbucks and Target? Not so much.


Less is more. Moderation is key.


Please?


PS...If you are a "sharer" and are reading this, I hope I didn't offend you. I wasn't referring to anyone in particular. This is just my opinion. It means nothing. Actually, it just means that I couldn't think of anything else to blog about today and so I vented about a trend which irritates me. A bit. So please don't hate me, OK? 


PSS...And also, too? I totally get the irony that I'm talking about sharing and less is more when I share random things from my life on my blog. Just call me an ironically irritated hypocrite. 


PSSS...I guess what I'm saying is that sharing is good, sharing trivia is bad. Except for me, of course.