Face-Off, the post (not the shitty movie)

An (originally) short comment about facebook. I hate it. It's slow, it's annoying, and as every sane person, i don't like getting idiotic messages, not to mention the eternal "this and this made a quiz about that and that".

At the same time, i enjoy reading people's statuses, which always brings the most human and at the same time most creative of people, and even the looking at their pictures. Moreover, I do believe in it's ability to maintain relationships, and bring people together.

People are quick to criticize the “fake” friendships, which are based on nothing more than two people knowing each other names. Some are so. But i cannot wonder, how deep do "real" personal friendships really go? I am not talking about the most intimate of friendships (how many of these can an average man have? I'd say no more than 10), but of the ones with other people, who are in the same social circles long enough to be defined as "personal friends". These also can of course be very rewarding, but during my life, I have gotten (and certainly given) the cold shoulder from people regarded as personal long-time friends, and on the other hand, received great help from people who barely knew me.

Take my time in China as an example. Now i have a kind of a house in China, but there was a time i only had bags to move from bed to bed. More than half of it (Beijing, Yinchuan) was spent in other people's (4) houses. Only one of them did I know before coming to China, and also only shallowly. Nonetheless, they have let me into their house. This is, in part, thanks to the world created by networks such as facebook or couchsurfing, according to which, if somebody is a friend of a friend, he's probably also your friend.

Going back to the example i wrote about recently - the guy who is in a "Arab hating" group. with me as a friend, and with the friends i have, i wouldn't rule out the possibility that he's a mere three friend \ Kevin Bacon degrees from a guy in a "hate Israelis" group. Facebook has actually brought them closer together. Us optimistic "friends" can hope it's a matter of time before they realize that - whether they like it or not, whether it be real or virtual - they are part of the same network.