BLOGS VS FACEBOOK

It is a time that many of us are torn between posting on our blogs or on Facebook.

Facebook requires and invitation and once you have mutually accepted, you can push open the screen door and walk in without knocking.

Blogs are like giant billboards. As you drive life’s highway one catches your eye and you check further into the subject only to become a fan. (Or not).

Facebook is perfect for keeping up with family because you catch a glimpse and know that all is well with them for that day.

A problem arises when you begin to find yourself thinking of blog readers as friends and/or family. If and when they disappear you can only imagine where they went but if you never knew their real name you simply will not hear from them again. Ouch!

This year in March, I lost a blog friend to death. I knew she died but her family first blocked who could view her past posts then deleted the blog later. So with the click of someone’s mouse the face of Beverly Finely of BEVERLY BITES was yanked away. No one close to her knew I had followed her blog and corresponded with her and that I felt the loss. I could not go back and view her posts that made me laugh or made me cry and I will never know how her sister Dolly is doing, how her sons and grandchildren are getting along, how her dear friend Bruce is and what about her big dog Cletus, the Red Hats and what is going on at the Tavern?. Well, she really wasn’t my friend or family……..was she?

The next to go this year was Linda G who also signed in as she-of-little-brain. Her posts on ONE ACRE WOOD were right up my alley and we had a grand time reading each other’s posts. On the day in May, 2009, she left blog world after she commented very nicely about me and my blogging and then, poof, she was gone. Her blogs are still there SPEAKING OUT ON FREEDOM and PRESCOTT PAST so maybe there is a chance she will return. At least when the blog is deleted we know not to keep watching for them.

Sammy of I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN… is a huge shocker to lose. She told us in September how busy she was and she told us she was having a difficult time juggling work and family. She said she would probably slow down posting. Instead she disappeared, blog and all. We wonder to ourselves if something happened to her or her spouse or their beautiful son and we can only offer a prayer of concern.

Then there is the paranoia that comes with the possible fact I am the only person they have excluded and perhaps that is intentional. Maybe Beverly’s family did know who I was and deleted my access because... Maybe Linda G and Sammy told everyone but me where they were going next?

Maybe these are the very reasons that Facebook is less painful. You know that the people you follow are real. You know where you can find them if they stop posting. But you never get the benefit of their profound essays on life like you do on the blogs.

P.S. If you are planning to stop blogging, email me first would you or post a final entry that says “I’m outta here but I’m okay.”