Do I LOVE or HATE Facebook?

Let me preface this blog post by saying that I am the first one to admit that I, Lana Summitt, am addicted to Facebook. I have an app on my crackberry that if I am realistic I will admit that I probably check at least twice an hour. For the 16 hours a day that I am awake. That's a lot. I scroll through, I read status updates, I look at pictures, I "like" a few status updates, I write on a wall, respond to a message, etc. Here are my issues with Facebook.

Do we know too much about each other?
For instance, I went the Kojie Reunion at Harding Homecoming (and blogged about it a few months ago), and I felt like I already knew EVERYTHING about most of the girls I spoke to that morning. I knew who had babies. I knew who was expecting. I knew who got married and to whom. I knew who was still single. I knew about jobs and haircuts and new cars and going back to school. I knew it all. I can't remember one thing I "learned" about any of my friends that day. And some of them, I have not seen since graduation four years ago! And there are maybe some people that I know that I don't want to know everything about me. But I put it out there for anyone to comment on or "like". I put everything on Facebook and I don't even know what my privacy settings are. There is no telling who reads the stuff I put on there. *Note to self, check privacy settings after publishing post.

Should this be our main form of communication?
For instance, (and what prompted this post), Matt checked Facebook a few weekends ago only to find out that his brother, Joe, had become engaged! Now we knew he was planning the engagment (which he had asked us to be present for) and we absolutely love Tiffany so it wasn't a shock or disappointment to find out this information. Shouldn't they have talked to each other on the phone or in person or at least through text? And if I am making plans with someone, should it be through a Facebook message? (Big groups excluded. It may be just easier to do through Facebook message.) What happened to a phone call? And will we never write letters again? I realize that email is probably more to blame for that one, but who doesn't love receiving a letter in their mailbox? And HANDWRITTEN to boot. LOVE a good handwritten note.

As a blogger and a tweeter and a Facebook user, I guess bottom line I put myself out there. Things I don't like about Facebook, I also do regularly whether it be group messages or looking at pictures. I will say it is so helpful to be able to get on and look at pictures of friends who live in other cities (some 5 hours away in Nashville with a new baby boy I want to regularly see pictures of) and it's so easy, since I am on there all the time, to send a message or write on a wall to get a message across. I'm guilty too and I am an offender. I just wonder if personal forms of communication are gone with the wind...