Two windows in San Miguel. Is it any wonder why I love this city? The road is slanted, not the photo!

You all know how I used to feel about Facebook. I dug in my heels and refused to participate, even to the point of deleting everything I done on it so far. I'm not sure what made me think differently. Maybe it was our friend, Phyllis, back in Colorado that recently had a kidney transplant. I knew she didn't read the blog and I wanted to be more in touch with her. I'm not sure. All I know is that one day I woke up and said "today is the day I start posting on Facebook."

I started this blog when we moved to New Jersey so that my family members and close friends could keep up with us in our newly adopted state. After a while I realized that only a few of them were even reading. Facebook is a good way to keep up with them without them having to slog through reading my blog if they don't want to. I will always post a link to my blog post on Facebook and they can either choose to follow the link and read, or not. And they still get to know what we are up to. A win-win. I figure what the harm? My blog is public now and open to anyone who happens to stop by. My Facebook account is set up for only friends to be able to access my mind's meanderings.

Aren't you glad I'm not ranting and raving about it anymore? It's actually kind of nice. I feel connected.

However, I still feel that social media can quickly get out of hand if taken too far. If we aren't careful it could all end up like the book The Circle where everyone has to know everybody's else thoughts and you have to "like" everything everybody in your "circle" does or they get offended — and sometimes your circle contains a large part of the world and you have to keep track of all of them. It's an interesting read and it makes you think about privacy control issues. The main character works for a scarily powerful internet company (which mimics Google). She wears a camera and records everything that she sees (except for bathroom privacy moments) and it all gets "shared" over the internet as it unfolds in real time. The whole thing is very creepy, especially the ending.

And what about those Google glasses or a tiny camera called the Narrative that you clip on and it captures photos of your day by taking two pictures every minute. I mean, really? You can photograph things without anyone knowing. And why? Do we really have to "remember every moment?" If we do our brains are sure to explode from all the unnecessary garbage that we don't need! Do we need to be that plugged in? I think people spend more time recording events on their phones than they do actually participating in the event. When we saw the Rockettes Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall, the entire row in front of us was rudely holding up their phones, recording the performance. We politely asked them to stop  and put down their phones so we could see the show. Instead of living in the moment we are always looking back at what we missed because we were so caught up in capturing the moment.

I've been guilty of doing this very same thing when I tote my camera everywhere. I am always the one taking photos and sometimes I've felt like my experience was taking photos and not the actual experience of whatever I was doing. Do you know what I mean? I sometimes now even leave my camera behind when I go for a walk, just to enjoy the experience and not to record it. (Even if I do say "darn, I should have brought the camera" at times.) And then I think to myself, never mind, just enjoy the moment.

Okay, I've started rambling now and I am not sure I am making any sense at all anymore, so I'll stop here. Read The Circle if you get a chance. It will make you think.