Being far away from home it becomes more realistic these days to keep connected with those at home (and indeed flung around the globe as most of my friends seem to be these days), by the use of the frenzied social media sites that are firing up our generation. Given we are fairly new to this huge game changing form of communication, I have begun investing time in a few aspects of it in order to keep up with my offspring who seem to schmooze their way (age 10) through the whole gamete of channels available to them...stop me if I start sounding like my mother at this point.
Whilst undertaking this task some things I have found to be pleasing in my brave new world of techno savviness - blogs are agreeing with me, seems you can merrily vent about various aspects of life, click a few buttons, add a few pics and you're off to the races. Facebook seems a tad trickier than it first appeared - new applications popping up daily, friends from the past who you may be wishing to remain there, and the whole invasion into your daily face time with the computer are aspects that seem to be disconcerting.
A real live friend of mine recently worried that she was asked to befriend someone on Facebook who she could only recall, at best, as being the person who stuck pins in her at school! What was the etiquette for politely suggesting to the pin sticker that it might not be appropriate, even 30 years later to assume that 'friendship' would be a bond that is blithely bartered online. It seems to be considered cool to some on the site to have as many friends as you can, competitive 'friending' has become a new pass time for those who maybe don't possess the live versions and are turning to a virtual world to keep them company.
The upside I guess, is that as we evolve along with these social mediums our etiquette will improve and somewhere out there sometime (probably already there) we will be able to call upon a brave new version of the Lucy Clayton Finishing School to teach us polite society's' way forward.
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