SALE: Friends! Buy one, get one free!

SOCIAL NETWORKING IS CHEAPENING YOUR FRIENDSHIPS

Let me say that again: SOCIAL NETWORKING IS CHEAPENING YOUR FRIENDSHIPS!

Friends, please, wake up and see this glaring reality!  What is happening to us?  I will tell you: we are slowly becoming an unbalanced society; everyone wants to be wanted, but no one is pursuing the want-ables!

Facebook is cheapening your friendships.  I can attest to a few things:

Prior to deleting my Facebook:
 1) I found out all major news/events in my peers' lives via Facebook, or word-of-mouth from someone else that saw this news on Facebook.
 2) When I wrote someone an email or a message I felt that I had met my quota for the week/month/year and that I no longer needed to be with this friend in person in order to catch up on our lives.
 3) I posted things on Facebook with the expectation that everyone would see them, so I no longer cared to inform my friends when important events took place in my life.
 4) Facebook gave me a general sense of community; I felt like I was with 150 friends every day and that I had all of the information about them that I needed.

These are such false senses of security!  We have stopped pursuing our closest friends because we have substituted the Internet in their place.  We find ways to jam pack each day and we do not factor in time to socialize and build relationships because we take them for granted and assume the Internet can fill that void.  This is so wrong!

Social networking sites have their advantages, and they do serve a good purpose.  But at what cost?  It is great that you can keep your extended family and long-distance friends updated instantly, but what about the people that you call your "close friends?"  How often do we really set aside time to with JUST one person at a time to find out where they are at?

I think I have four real friends.

I feel like my "friends" no longer think it is necessary to communicate with me.  Deleting my Facebook has shown me who my friends are.  Or rather, it's shown me where peoples' priorities lie.  It is very easy to find me, when you need something that I can give you.  Yeah, we have busy schedules. Yeah, you aren't my boyfriend and you aren't my best friend.  But at one time you poured out your heart and you told me I was an important part of your life.  So why don't you act like it?  Maybe this is my love language, maybe it's just how I was raised; if you care about me you will pursue me and keep in TOUCH.

I don't think that I am any kind of exception to this.  We all want to be wanted.  I love it when people seek ME out as opposed to me always having to tex or call them.  We all want to know that someone is thinking about us often.  Here I differ and I say that I don't want to just be a name that you think about as you scroll by me in the news feed.  I want to be pursued, I want to be loved.  Please stop throwing this word around, please start cherishing your friends.