Several months ago, I met a girl who's visiting her brother on our sunny shores. She's an Asian expat who lives in the UK.
We kept in-touch via email after she left to continue with her very long Asian vacation. It continued on for several weeks until Facebook reared its ugly head. We became 'friends'.
By then, she was back in the UK, and turns out to be a consiencious updater. So I start getting posts in my feed of cookies being baked, lazy days of reading books I've never heard of while up in a tree, rainy countryside cycling adventures and even a slacklining adventure up in the mountains made into what looks like a professionally-edited video (yes, complete with a soundtrack I've never heard before; 'quotable quotes' from participants; people looking cool while laughing, dancing, singing; mood shots; angles, angles and more angles).
And the yachting. Out at sea photos. People lounging on a shiny white deck. People fishing. More sea.
Then I realised that while she says she has a 'business', she had not been working for months and can afford not to.
If you say I'm jealous - yes, I suppose, of her being wealthy or from a wealthy family (which I hadn't realised before Facebook).
That other stuff - cookies, yachting, Save the Whales! causes - not really my thing. But looking at them, I've never felt more middle-class. And it's not a bad thing - just a sudden realisation of something I never thought about or never had to think about.
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And then there were the people I haven't been speaking to for some months.
The business of 'making up' after you've had a tiff or some other awkward event is a strange thing - but pretty easy when you're facing a computer screen. Neither party talks about or makes reference to whatever happened. Politeness is at an all-time high. Perhaps just so that you know they got on fabulously without you, some people talk about things they did or are going to do, or how busy they are hanging out with their friends. Others are civil but tight-lipped, providing short and sweet answers to questions, and making general comments in response to things that are said.
But the proof of the pudding is whether anything happens offline.
So far, through no fault of mine, nothing has happened.
I wonder if some people are in it for the appearance or reassurance of having 'made up' or being 'friends' again. Why bother?
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They are young, they run free. Stay up late, they don't (need much) sleep. Got their friends, got the night. They will be alright!
Happened to get to know a new group of people and now end up hanging out (literally) with a couple of youngsters.
One of them turns out to be the friend of a friend's youngest brother (Facebook strikes again!). When I met the friend in question, she accuses me of being a paedophile(!!!). So for the record, I'm not dating the kid.
But I've realised that while they may have this effervescent guileless quality about them, youngsters these days are in fact adapt at using people. It's not done so obviously, so one may or may not realise it after it has happened. So no, I won't date these kids - they're dangerous.
Incidentally, I was reading a comic the other day, where one character was complaining about 'youngsters' and then asks, 'What makes me old?' And his friend retorts, 'When you start using words like youngsters!'
Ho ho ho. Scary youngsters.
