JOINING - The Facebook Challenge

I have never been a good joiner. I resisted joining all groups as a child. I got kicked out of Brownies at age 5 (don't ask) and my involvement in group activities went down hill from there. Despite my own poor personal history on joining, I am determined to have both my kids join something. Something positive. Like baseball, boy scouts, gymnastics, orchestra, you get the idea. So far it has been a challenge. Neither child wants to join anything.

That is, except for Facebook. Now what I struggle with is: Does Facebook count? Is this type of joining a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it is an inevitable thing. Facebook might be like "the borg", resistance is futile. Soon we will all be on Facebook, whether we like it or not.

My trusted, older friend, Diane, is convinced that Faceboook will evolve into a conspiracy of sorts where we will all be Facebook zombies as a result of signing up. Or that someone will figure out how to siphon all our monetary funds surreptitiously through our Facebook accounts.

Frankly, those are not my biggest Facebook concerns. My list includes the following dilemmas:

Does time on Facebook count as screen time or is it socializing? Is Facebooking what we used to do, when we hung around the corner store.

Does Facebook make our children better people or is it somehow interfering with the normal social development of normal adolescents. I can make a good argument for both sides on this issue.

Isn't Facebook just one small part of a larger issue, one that frames the generation gap of this era?

How much of our lives should be led in the form of key strokes?

Are we more disconnected or less as a result of the WORLD WIDE WEB?

Can these key stokes which depict our daily lives replace the daily contact we once had with each other when we were raising barns together or making quits to keep us warm through those cold winter nights?

I wish I had answers to these questions. Maybe I should start a Facebook discussion group? If I do, will you join?