On Friends and Facebook

Now that I have Mother Bashing out of my system I plan to put the psychologist/philosopher hat back on.

An incident yesterday on Facebook made me think about friends and relationships and how we are multi-faceted beings and maybe all of the different people in our lives really shouldn't meet.

WHEW! Did that make any sense? Any at all?

Let me explain.

You know whenever you attempt to bring different friends from different areas in your life together (let's say you plan a dinner party and invite your very best old friend from high school and then your cubicle mate from work and someone from your mom's group).

Confused yet?

And these are all people that have meaning to you...you share a history with them all, but in different ways.

And they hate each other. "Who was that idiot you sat me next to?" "Don't tell me you really like her" "You've been friends since high school? You have nothing in common"

etc. etc.

Kind of like a wedding, eh?

That is how Facebook is. You have relatives and friends. Co-workers and acquaintances all in one little corner of your friend's list. If you brought them together in a room you would be exhausted.

But yet, they can interact and talk amongst themselves.

At will.

Now you may ask: Where am I going with this?

Yesterday an old friend of my sister posted something on her wall about my sister.

Something hurtful that my sister said.

Something for which she has apologized for repeatedly in the last six months.

And all of this woman's other people proceeded to rip into my sister. It went on most of the day and some very hurtful things were said all around.

Should Facebook be a tool for airing dirty laundry?

It's basically a giant electronic gossip mill. In posting things that are bothering you, you open yourself up to the scrutiny of the masses.

And the results are not always pretty.

And I am stuck in the middle.

For we are now talking about my loyalty and love for my sister vs. the love I feel for someone I have seen as another little sister.

For this reason I haven't commented at all on Facebook.

I don't want to make it any worse than it is.

But it's a shame that the dirty laundry of a 30 year old friendship was hung up for all the world to see.