Friends, Worth the Trouble

Friends are worth the trouble

For all of the criticism of Facebook, many of us find it to be a tool that is genuinely useful in maintaining friendships. The social-media program helps me maintain contact with "real world" friends, and has even enhanced some relationships I have that, as of yet, have not ventured out of the cyber world. Like many of you, though, I’ve almost quit accepting friend requests. It's not that I've become unfriendly or grown adverse to meeting new people. My reluctance to clicking "accept" has to do with the rash of Facebook hacking. My account and many of my friend's Facebook personas have been seized by people with nothing better to do. One way the viral activity spreads is through sending friend requests. So if I get a request from Nozzle Ditrim, before I accept it, the responsible thing for me to do is to check my friend list to see if Nozzle is already on my list of friends. If Mr. Ditrim is already my friend, that's a pretty good indication that someone has gotten hold of old Nozzle's account, and intends to use it to spread something nefarious. Since I don't always have time to check, I often don't respond. I don't figure that Ditrim much cares. He's got a tough hide. But when Sweet Polly, new account and all, sends me a request I ignore it can be bothersome. It's sad that bad people are messing with a good--at least for some--medium. It's far worse, however, when out in the real world we go into protective mode and fail to make new friends, or maintain old ones, because it might lead to pain. I've got news for you. Friendship is always painful. Sooner or later it will hurt, but it's worth it. It's STTA (Something To Think About).