I'm not following you

On the plane to Trinidad, I ended up sat next to this girl, Asha. She was a UK Trini, so was on her way for carnival too. Lots of Trinis come back for carnival. We got on pretty well, and some time into the conversation, she says "So can we keep in touch on facebook when we get back?"

I believe this was the sort of situation that I referred to a few posts back.

With some pride I said "No I don't use facebook any more"

"When did you close it" She asked, "and why?"

"Oh, I closed it on Monday" I replied, a little self-conscious at this point, "Cos I think it's crap" Well that sorts the self-consciousness out then.

I could sense then something in the air. The atmosphere of the conversation had gone from being a perfectly normal formation dialogue, filled with potential and hope to one in which there were now invisible boundaries, frontiers which the other would feel uneasy crossing.

From her I could sense a mixture of pity, frustration and superiority, and I guess the same vibe must have emanated from me.

Suddenly, our social positions had changed and what was once a binding medium had become the bone of contention. It's an unspoken thing I think, that EVERYONE has facebook and that communication on it is fair game even beyond the natural life of a REAL relationship.

For me the feeling was a real relief. I always dreaded having people add me who I had met once on a bus. The ensuing relationship on facebook was always one of reminiscing on a single bus ride in text form. What crap! I was so relieved with the knowledge that when she took my card, she could email me and she didn't need to know any more about me. Brilliant. I didn't have any interest in seeing her profile and looking through her holiday snaps. What a relief.

I met her again later at J'ouvert and she took my photo and joked that she'd have to send me it by email so it might take some time. She made sure to get a pic of me and her mate in so that she could tag her on facebook, and I wouldn't see it. BRILLIANT! So if she DOES send it, that's a pic I get, and I don't have to sift through a bunch of photos of complete strangers to find it. WICKED!

Why I didn't give facebook up earlier I will never know.
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