Real F.r.i.e.n.d.s

I resist the urge daily to quit Facebook for good. I read my news feed and think "I don't care about any of these people." Mind you, I'm not friending random strangers, these are people I used to know. They are friends from high school, previous employers, distant family, current and ex-girlfriends, and friends of friends.

I realized recently that Facebook has it all wrong. Like most people who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I want my life to resemble a tv show. When I think of how relationships work in those shows there aren't hundreds of old friends hanging around the cast of F.r.e.i.n.d.s; there are six people who know each other really well. Sometimes they meet an old friend, but just for an episode. This is what I want. I want a core group of friends that I hang out with and we have adventures meeting and communicating with "the outsiders." After our adventures alone or with a subset of the core group, we come back and tell the rest of the group.

I want to build a family structure out of my friends, but Facebook isn't set up for that. Facebook is networking with all the people you know, people you met through them, casual friends, bosses, and anyone you might see on an occasional basis. This is not what I want my friend group to be.