Writing with Rox Weekly Prompt—WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?

Okay Folks, I'm getting closer, though I don't like it one bit.

                              (By the way, what are "folks" anyway? Are they friends? Almost friends? Old friends? Small town friends? Small friends?) If memory serves me well, I do not recall hearing the term "folks" while growing up in LA., unless you count  parents "folks" which is how Richie Cunningham referred to his mom and pop on Happy Days.

We just weren't a folksy kind of folk. In fact, I wonder how different my life would be today had I been raised among the warm fuzzy idea of "folks," verses the feral threat of "fuckers," assholes, and actors, where everyone posed some sort of danger, mainly of being better than you. Not that we didn't have nice folks among us—we did! But most of the time, according to Ma anyway, those folks were either "unhappy" or "completely unconscious."

                     So what then were we, we folkless Angelenos?

                  And does this explain my continued reluctance to join Facebook?


My politics surrounding Facebook stem from a book I call my bible book, "A General Theory of Love," by Thomas Lewis and  coauthor experts on neuroplasticity, psychology, etc. The main idea is that things like Facebook and other two-dimensional intimacy substitutes (though it was written pre FB) erode empathy and are among the ways we are frighteningly fading out as a (human) species.  I still agree with this, could go on about it and will.

However. However. Is there something deeper at play here? Is my refusal to conform really a fear of rejection?  Admittedly, I do not speak Facebook so forgive my broken understanding here, but are you really my friend or are you just saying you are? I mean, I get that it's a cute catchy lingo thing, but look, if you're my friend on Facebook are you the same friend in person? Do you even know me? And then you have to decide whether or not you like me? Don't you like me already if we're friends? If so, how do you show that in real life... what does a real-life thumbs up look like?.......

             ..... And if we carry on like this, calling cyber-friends friends, aren't we subtly changing the definition of the word friend? Are we then substituting the intimacy of in person friendship for the volume of friends we have online? And eventually does this more convenient quick rush substitution win out over the real thing?  Is this NOT what George Orwell went on about in Politics and the English Language?

Yes, I'm over thinking it, but it's my job to over think things and then write about them. What do you think? Are you on FB? Why or why not? What's your Facebook story? Rant? Rave?   And if none of that matters, let me know exactly what a "folks" is.      Or... meet me in the middle:

Is it folksy or feral on Facebook? Shall I instead start a FOLKSBOOK page?  What if folks and.........