Just after Christmas my wife caved into the peer pressure and took a bit of her life public with a shiny new Facebook account. She had been resistant but one can only fight the social wheels of technology for so long. My wife is an intelligent lady, but technological know-how is not her strong suit, it’s not even her leisure suit.

In our household I am responsible for the proper programming, setting up, and day-to-day operation and maintenance of all things electronic. Just one more thing that my mother prepared me for many years ago when she would call me at college and ask how to program the VCR to record Phil Donahue…it’s nice to be needed.

She would call angry at the VCR for not magically doing what it was supposed to do, and I would talk her through the process. “Do you have the remote in your hand?” “Are you pointing the remote at the VCR?” “No, not your middle finger, the VCR doesn’t recognize that signal.” “Are the television and VCR on?” “Okay, now listen close and follow my instructions so nobody gets hurt…namely the VCR.”

Nowadays I get similar calls from my lovely wife and if I do my job with minimum sarcasm and absolutely no remarks about her Polish technological wizardry, she’ll still speak to me when I get home. We’ve had a few technology induced “quiet times” prompting an emailed apology…from me.

I knew she would like Facebook because she enjoys visiting and staying in touch with her friends and had commented that not many people email anymore because they’re on Facebook. Well now she’s on Facebook and her friend list is expanding and she’s in touch with everyone whether she wants to be or not. Due to her and technologies love hate relationship she’s not an addict and Facebooks in moderation.

We all have people who we need to keep in touch with and people who need to keep in touch with us. For various reasons some friends are more than just a friend, they are a best friend and are always there for us as we are for them. When we’re ugly, they’ll be there, when we’re happy, they’ll be there, when the internet crashes and your Facebook friends list gets deleted they’ll be there.

They can’t be deleted and you can’t just pull the plug and walk away. Well, I guess you can literally pull the plug if they’ve given you the legal right to do so, but that’s another matter so we’ll stick with figurative plug pulling.

So as far as Facebook goes I guess it’s good for helping us maintain a little chit chat with acquaintances on occasion. But that friend who calls out of the blue when you’re feeling the same shade or the one you find yourself visiting with over a cup or a pint that’s your real friend’s list.

Most likely a shorter list, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality.