Heeeeeeyyyyy Abbooooooooooott!!!!

Well it certainly has been a long time between drinks for this baton waver. A lot has gone down since we last spoke and I will fill you in on all that in the next few days. Suffice it to say that many things have changed for me and, as always, I have opinions on the world at large that need airing.

But today I want to talk about a string of events that occurred a couple weeks back. My friend, colleague and one of my inspirations, Graham Abbott, left Facebook. I know. The day it happened I'm sure the stocks in Facebook fell, planes dropped out of the sky and Justin Bieber miraculously developed talent. Graham was a prolific user of FB. Almost everyday he was posting either a status or a news article or responding to other people's messages. To me, he proved that you actually CAN have a busy life AND waste time on FB. YAY! But when those nasty boys at FB decided to tell him and everyone else what they wanted him to see well that was the final straw for him. He announced he was quitting the site and it quite literally sent people insane. In hindsight, I'm not actually sure why. As far as I know, Graham is in pretty good health, he still has a phone and email not to mention his own blog. It's not like he's becoming a hermit in the snowy peaks of Tibet. Even I wasn't immune to the shock. I think it was because it happened so suddenly. The change occurred and in less than 24 hours he had decided to pack up his bat and ball and go home. It all seems so ridiculous now when I think about it.

I have long said that you get out of FB what you put into it. In many ways, it has helped me keep in contact with many people I wouldn't normally be able to. It allows me to feel like I'm there with friends. I share their joys, achievements and their misery. I've probably gotten to know people more on FB than I could have in real life (and I suspect many people feel that way about me). Some don't like sharing stuff about their lives and they tend to use FB as a kind of window into the world of others only reaching out when needed. I have set myself my own boundaries. Whilst I occasionally check in at places I'm visiting (like theatres) I simply refuse to check in at home. I'm also pretty sure people don't need to know what food I've just eaten or what colour socks I have on today. More importantly I've decided that my political thoughts and religious thoughts (by and large) will remain my own. Picking a fight over FB seems incredibly cowardly to me. In some ways I admire Graham's guts to leave FB the way he did.

There have been times when I've wondered why I've devoted so much effort into my little corner of the web. But ultimately I'm happy with the people I have as friends and I try and keep things chugging along. The new layout doesn't bother me like it did Graham and that's ok.

Facebook is a slightly less intelligent space now that Graham has gone (at least for me). I didn't agree with everything he said or posted, but that's the thing about friends. You admire them despite the differences. How lonely life would be if we only had friends who agreed with us on everything.