An email with the subject line “[So and So] wants to be friends on Facebook”, when [So and So] is a former high school classmate of mine.
I haven’t seen any of them in 20+ years. They are nice enough people but they sometimes terrify me. There are a couple who became grandparents. Yes, grand-fucking-parents! And they are not even 40 yet or maybe they just turned 40 but they are already posting baby photos of their grandkids. In my world, my almost 40 year old friends are having babies. For the first time!
And of course, there is the issue of the questions I get: why don’t I have kids?! Why do I live in Amsterdam? And can I please narrate some exotic adventure of my life some place else? It’s just sad and cringe inducing at the same time. And it makes me censor myself for fear of offending someone or leading someone to believe I am showing off or telling an aggrandized version of my daily comings and goings. And there is the issue of language. If I post in English, I get a whole bunch of comments asking why I don’t post in Spanish (even though up to a certain point we shared the same English education that obviously they don’t want to use anymore). And if I post in Spanish, I alienate my current friends (my local friends, I might add) who don’t speak the language.
So yeah, Facebook has become my emotional burden.
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