Facebook? Is it gone?

At the top of my internet explorer browser, I have a quicklink to my facebook account. Every time that I want to log in to my facebook account, I simply click on the tab and it takes me there. Today, this afternoon, at 4:20 to be exact, I clicked on that link and it didn't work. Every other page that I attempted to go to worked, but my facebook account would not open. The internet browser kept saying that I wasn't connected to the internet or something crazy like that...

I was baffled, broken, confused. Me without a facebook account? Goodness. What was I to do? Then I began to remember the days before facebook. The days when I would open a browser and not click on the facebook tab to see if anyone had thrown a sheep at me or asked me to be part of their world changing scheme. I didn't check to see if a long lost friend had sent me a message or to see if one of my students had posted something on my wall. What did I do before facebook? As I reflected on that question, I realized that facebook has simply added one more thing into my day. It has added a "social network" to my day of social networks. The downside is that often, it is a false social network. We can send all kinds of messages and wall posts, but nothing beats the face to face interaction where relationships are forged.

I sometimes fear that we are creating a culture with subtle disconnects of people. In a culture that screams for depth of relationship, we do away with any chance of depth that we might have in the name of facebook, or email, or myspace.

I will continue to use facebook (If I can ever log back in) but there is certainly an awareness that I must see it as a tool and not a social network. It certainly can be used for communication but it is not a relationship forging utility. Nothing beats the good old face to face meeting and discussing something to forge a relationship!