I have always been opposed to the social networking sites. \u00a0If I want to talk to my friends I can email or IM them. \u00a0I have never needed a prefab website because I’ve had my own since the late ’90s.\u00a0\u00a0Not\u00a0to\u00a0mention all\u00a0the problems\u00a0with myspace.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0remember\u00a0when facebook\u00a0first\u00a0came\u00a0out.\u00a0\u00a0It was limited to specific groups\u00a0of people, university students,\u00a0if I\u00a0recall\u00a0correctly. \u00a0It\u00a0was designed\u00a0to\u00a0only\u00a0allow your friends\u00a0in\u00a0real life\u00a0to see your profile, yada, yada, yada. \u00a0It\u00a0was\u00a0better\u00a0than myspace I\u00a0thought, but if\u00a0only your friends\u00a0can see\u00a0your profile\u00a0then\u00a0why can’t you just tell your friends\u00a0what you’re\u00a0up to? Why would\u00a0anyone\u00a0need\u00a0a social\u00a0networking site?<\/p>\n
About a year ago I started\u00a0having\u00a0the feeling\u00a0that I needed\u00a0to get\u00a0in touch with\u00a0some old friends.\u00a0\u00a0See how\u00a0they\u00a0were\u00a0doing,\u00a0and\u00a0reconnect.\u00a0\u00a0These\u00a0weren’t just\u00a0run\u00a0of\u00a0the mill friends.\u00a0\u00a0These were my best friends\u00a0who\u00a0I\u00a0had lost\u00a0contact\u00a0with. Time and semi-frequent\u00a0relocations tends\u00a0to\u00a0do that.\u00a0\u00a0There are two in particular\u00a0who I have felt\u00a0I needed\u00a0to get into\u00a0contact with. \u00a0I started scouring the internet. \u00a0Nothing. After a while I found one of them in a local newspaper, perhaps a BYU Idaho paper. \u00a0His name was in the caption of a photo of a local band. \u00a0He was playing the drums. \u00a0That was the only thing I could find. \u00a0I couldn’t even find his email address from BYU’s directory. \u00a0The other friend has all but dissappeared.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0couple\u00a0weeks ago\u00a0a friend invited me to join facebook, it was one of those form letters, you know where everyone in that persons address book is invited; \u00a0personal spam. \u00a0I haven’t ever accepted any of her invitations before, why would I now? \u00a0I ignored it for a few days, even deleted the email. \u00a0It kept pestering me. I kept getting the feeling that I should do it. \u00a0I even ran across an old journal entry of mine where I talked about how I wished I would always follow that little voice. \u00a0Talk about prodding. \u00a0I pretty much had to do it. \u00a0So I found the email in the trash, and accepted the invitation.<\/p>\n
During the application process that ensued I was asked about my entire life, the high schools I went to, where I went to college, where I work, where I live, where I go to church, the whole nine yards. \u00a0Little did I know that it\u00a0would\u00a0use all\u00a0this\u00a0information\u00a0to\u00a0find my\u00a0real life friends.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0is\u00a0a little scary\u00a0how accurate it is.\u00a0\u00a0After I\u00a0filled\u00a0out\u00a0the application it\u00a0popped\u00a0up\u00a0a list of names\u00a0and\u00a0said you might know\u00a0these people.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0first\u00a0person\u00a0on\u00a0the list was James Speirs,\u00a0one\u00a0of my best friends.\u00a0\u00a0One\u00a0of the few people I’ve kept\u00a0in touch\u00a0with\u00a0through\u00a0a mission, college,\u00a0and\u00a0marriage.\u00a0\u00a0That’s\u00a0cool I\u00a0thought.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0remainder\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0entire first\u00a0page was people I knew.\u00a0\u00a0Some of\u00a0them are friends,\u00a0some\u00a0I\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0be caught dead\u00a0with, I guess\u00a0facebook can’t\u00a0know everything.<\/p>\n
After choosing\u00a0some friends I sent\u00a0them a friendship\u00a0invitation,\u00a0where\u00a0they accept\u00a0that\u00a0they know me\u00a0and are my friends.\u00a0\u00a0After\u00a0a few days I had\u00a0a couple people ask to be my friends. \u00a0A couple I didn’t know, it must be popular to have tons of ‘friends’, whether you know the people or not.<\/p>\n
Anyway after a day or\u00a0so it asked if I knew Nathan Hope,\u00a0since we both are LDS\u00a0and\u00a0went\u00a0to Temecula Valley High.\u00a0\u00a0Nate was\u00a0one of my\u00a0best friends\u00a0when I lived there,\u00a0in fact Nate\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0one playing\u00a0the drums\u00a0in that band\u00a0in Idaho.\u00a0\u00a0I’m glad I\u00a0followed\u00a0that\u00a0nagging feeling.\u00a0\u00a0We’ve sent\u00a0a few\u00a0emails\u00a0back\u00a0and forth,\u00a0and it’s nice\u00a0to\u00a0re-connect\u00a0with\u00a0someone you\u00a0were good friends with and haven’t seen for 15 years.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0for Josh Corrington, I still\u00a0haven’t\u00a0found\u00a0him. \u00a0I drove by\u00a0his dad’s house\u00a0when\u00a0I was\u00a0working\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0area, but it’s\u00a0gone,\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a0subdivision now sits where\u00a0their\u00a0orchard\u00a0was.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hopefully he’ll have that nagging feeling to join facebook.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0the\u00a0mean\u00a0time I’ll\u00a0be wating for a\u00a0message that says “you may be friends\u00a0with Joshua Corrington”…<\/p>\n
and\u00a0for James\u00a0to acknowledge that\u00a0we’re friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes the Spirit surprises you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[61,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}