Why I'm Thankful for Facebook

Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg.

I don't know what kind of mind it took to envision this virtual society we know as Facebook, but I know that for a virtually homebound person, it's a lifesaver. Well, maybe just a sanity saver.

Sure, if we let it, Facebook can turn into what has affectionately been called a "time suck." We sit down at the computer to pay a bill or check our bank balance. Once that's done, we decide to check in on Facebook and see what's happening. An hour or two later, our heads are spinning from conflicting political posts from our friends, we're wondering what happened to so-and-so who needs prayers, and we are tired of pictures of kittens and grumpy cats (or maybe not).

But when you spend a lot of time with companions who aren't much into adult conversation, like I do, it's a lifeline to the world.

If I pick up the phone and start talking, E1 can immediately tell she doesn't have my full attention and she'll either get into something, or more likely begin some urgent conversation with me that I cannot hear. If my phone conversation has no real point, then telling her it's rude to interrupt seems wrong somehow. Sure, if I'm trying to figure out some unrealistic charge on my credit card or book a doctor's appointment, I need to make the call while I'm thinking of it. If not, well, then she's probably more important than the phone call and I may well be the one being rude by ignoring the person in front of me for one miles away. Either way, it creates yet another conflict to be resolved.

On the other hand, with a smart phone I can be "visiting" with a lot of people, finding out what they are doing, giving my opinion, and sharing kitten images and mind-boggling political memes, without needing to fully engage myself. The Es don't know I'm not all in their world of puzzles, crayons, or racing around the yard pretending to be birds, and I can take a mental breath.

There are times when Facebook can get to be too much. In fact, rather than pursuing some outlandish number of friends, I've been weeding through my list on a daily basis. If people never tell me what they are doing or have a positive comment, well, why should they be allowed a window into my world? Or if all you ever do is post shares or copy/pastes, seriously, I've probably got other friends who will share the same thing, or if I agree with you I've already seen it. And yes, there are times I'm guilty of sharing a political post or silly picture. But it's because it speaks to me at some level. Feel free to delete me if I never "say" anything you want to hear.

Of course, there are also aggravating shares, which are the ones that require copying and pasting and declare that you will take those few seconds if you: love Jesus, love America, love Veterans, love your husband/sibling/children/parents/cousins, love animals, hate cancer, hate war, hate abuse of any kind, etc. Well, I don't know about other folks, but my mobile platforms don't enable me to do that and I really don't think that it proves anything. It's just annoying.

The ones that really get me are those that are total misinformation. How many dozen times have you seen the same ineffective privacy posts from your friends? Read the terms and conditions of your agreement to use Facebook. Yep. By and large what you share you give to them. It's not your diary or a letter to your closest friends. It's a social media platform and not only can the government and future employers look at it in as much detail as they choose, your friends can copy and paste, download and share anything you post. So be sure to trust your friends. Sometimes I care enough to check Snopes, but most of the time I just let it ride.

But I was talking about how I love Facebook, right?

I like that I can browse through my newsfeed and find out what a lot of my friends are doing. Their pictures and stories can brighten my day and may me feel as though, just for a moment, I was somewhere besides sitting at home arguing with a toddler who doesn't really want to lie still and take a nap. I can glean the most interesting news from local media, because if it has much interest someone will share it and since leaving journalism I pretty much boycott local news. Thanks to pages I like, I can look at a lot of information quickly and delve further with a click of my browser if I'm so inclined.

When the girls do something adorable, a click of my camera phone and a share can show their mom and dad at work, their other grandparents hours away, and extended family scattered around the country what they are doing. When something bad rocks my world, I can ask for prayer and feel the support of a network of friends that I may not talk to but a few times a year. When I want to share something funny, I can make roomfuls of people laugh or smile (come on, you know the stinkbug in the coffee made you smile). If I want to annoy a Conservative Republican friend (or maybe make them think), encourage "other" moms, share something that made me laugh, or even praise my Heavenly Father, I can share an image that someone or some site has shared with me.

Facebook has turned into one of the best methods for promoting and sharing my business, even without ever buying an ad. Friends can tell friends about what I'm doing and share a link to my page. Pictures of clients with tags to friends keep the number of "fans" growing, and although a lot of them will never set foot on the place, people all over the world occasionally read what I post, which is a neat feeling for a business owner and a writer.

Like anything, Facebook can be misused. But while they say don't blame the gun, blame the person, the same is true for Facebook. It's a tool with a lot of good uses. That people with bad intentions cause pain through its use isn't a good reason to blame the medium. Bad choices and an inability to disconnect are as more to blame than the medium.

Because no matter how much Facebook helps pass a day, it's important to remember that it is a virtual world, not the actual physical space we occupy. If we have a thousand Facebook friends, but no one we can really talk to, then we're still lonely. It's still more important that we interact with the world around us, watch the children playing in our own yards, feel the sun and wind on our faces, than it is to check in on what others are doing.

It's more important to live our lives than it is to share them, because if we fail to do one, we have nothing to contribute to the other.

What Makes Star Trek So Special?

iThis weekend we watched "Star Trek Into Darkness" after borrowing the unopened DVD from my daughter.

A couple of points to notice. First, we watched a movie on DVD; not in a theater. The first is rare not because we don't have DVDs, but because since the arrival of "The Hopper" we've almost always got something recorded (and during football season even those aren't watched as we're watching live TV on weekends). The second option -- going to a movie -- is rarer still and may happen twice a year or so. Then the DVD was unopened, which means my daughter suffers from the same time constraints I do.

Anyway, back to Star Trek.

After the movie was finished I pointed out to my husband that I found it interesting that a arguably poorly acted television series from our childhood days with no real special effects could still be inspiring remakes and movies nearly 50 years later. I mean, stop and think about it.

In 1966 a television series debuted and ran for three seasons. There were no outstanding special effects and the acting of some of the stars has long been criticized. And yet in the years since the "original" series disappeared there have been nearly constant attempts to recreate and recapture whatever it was that made that show, which wasn't especially long running so apparently not a huge commercial success, so magical.

Even today, odds are good that people recognize James T. Kirk and Spock, the quirky heroes of those early voyages through the stars. Though they may have seen only much newer versions of the series, which most people will say are not as good, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who played the very first version of the duo are well known and terribly typecast into those roles. Seriously, they worked that series for three years and can you think of any other roles (other than remakes) that they have played other than commercials?

There are jokes about the overacting; the fact that seatbelts were apparently a lost technology (oh, come on, in 1966 did we even care what seatbelts were for?); and Kirk's womanizing. None of those jokes are limited to those of us who watched the original series in our formative years. Instead they're spilling across Facebook and spreading to new generations.

I'm a "fan" of a Facebook page that was created by friends of George Takei (called Oh Myyy), who played Sulu, the helmsman on the original series. The page is a humor page, and occasionally that is directed at Star Trek or "trekkie" references.

Beyond the original series, of which there were only 80 episodes and the cancellation of which has been ranked in the top 5 of television bad decisions, Star Trek has lived on. There was a one year animated series and, beginning about 20 years after the original series disappeared from prime time viewing and went into syndication, there have been four more attempts at a TV series based on the original idea. Some were supposed prequels and some further voyages of starships whose staffing and mission was much like the original. There have also been 12 feature films, half of which were cast with the original crew, four from another series' cast, and more recently with actors portraying the same characters (Kirk, Spock and the gang) at an earlier point in their lives.

But enough history. Beyond it all I'm still fascinated by the fact that a TV series from my youth, which I probably actually watched in syndication since I was about E1's age when it started its run, is still such a part of our entertainment lingo. Sure, there are other shows that live on and many of them may be easier to find airing somewhere at any given time. But I think it would be difficult if not impossible to find another that still inspires the imaginations of writers, directors and viewers the way Star Trek does.

Perhaps it was the vision of its creator, Gene Roddenberry, who simply turned the then popular idea of westerns and wagon trains into its futuristic application of a journey into the unknown of the stars. That idea somehow still captures our imagination and appears to be at the heart of all of the attempts at a recreation of the original series. Perhaps, however, there was more to the series than a random scifi adventure.

After watching the latest installment with all its special effects and its much improved acting, I think what really lies at the heart of the series isn't the space journey at all -- although that gives it a twist that makes it ever changing and different. It's actually about a group of people who are racially diverse (and in some versions species diverse) who work together for the success and survival of them all and a pair of best friends who within their visions of what is right will do virtually anything for one another.

That, in essence is what really attracts us, that commitment within a small group of people and that friendship that we'd all like to have, whatever our character flaws may be. And whether or not we ever dream of going where no man has gone before.