people you may know

That was the title of the movie I watched on Here tv yesterday.

As the story went, a guy was fishing for a new love and thought he'd found one.

As it turned out, he was the one catfished.

And, it was purely by chance that he discovered the lie.

He was on facebook and, as is usual on the social network, a row of faces popped up, under the caption "People You May Know".

He immediately recognized one of the images, but the name was not familiar to him.

Clicking the image, he found out why fb had suggested it: they had a friend in common.

He called the friend, to ask her about the guy.

Sure, she told him, she knew the guy, had known him for years, he lived in Texas with his boyfriend ...

but he had stopped listening by that time.

He'd had many a dream based on that guy's face...

and he wasn't even the one he'd been talking to on the phone, the one who "wasn't on fb" and lived in New York?

Seriously, it was a very good movie.

One that made me think.

According to the social site, I had 399 friends.

Oh, really?

I seriously doubted that.

So, I started looking at all those folks I had "friended" over the decade-plus that I've been on it.

How many did I really know?

So, I started winnowing the herd, so to speak.

The first to go was some guy who knew the Peace Guy and had requested that I "friend" him... so I had.

Periodic checks of his page over the next couple of weeks had revealed that he could be cut loose again.

Then I started culling those that I knew on the very fringes of the theatre crowd.

Just because they were true friends with JinHi or Chris certainly didn't mean they were any more than a bare acquaintance to me.

Sure, I could enjoy their performance on the stage without being connected to them on fb - couldn't I?

Of course I could, and they could just a well enjoy my kudos from the audience without feeling a need to follow me on that website.

By the time I was done, I was left with 357 friends.

That's still a ridiculous number.

I am absolutely sure I have not been to the homes of everyone of those 357 people.

And I know very well that I have not had 357 people come to my house.

In my book, if I have not been to your home for a meal, and you have not been to mine, then we are acquaintances, not friends.

Period.

Sure, there are some distant family members that I have not yet met, but who are "friends" on fb, and I just don't feel that I can cut them loose just yet.

For instance, my Uncle Jimmy had four wives and nine children by them, so I have a cousin in Texas that I've never met, three in Georgia that I haven't seen since we were kids, another that disappeared and one that died a few years back.

Then, on Daddy's side of the family, my Aunt Barbara has a third daughter that I've never met; that cousin lives in Texas, too.

On my stepdad's side of the family, I have quite an extended number of people I used to know, but haven't seen much since his death in 2011.

Still, I have hope of seeing all of them outside the limits of my laptop monitor, so I keep them on my list.

While I was on fb, I deleted lots of photo albums I had placed on the site.

No need for all of those photographs to still be on there, right?

I trimmed the "groups" I was "following" or part of - most were online Pampered Chef parties or other such goods.

Honestly, I was a bit shocked those "groups" were even still listed, as some of those "events" had been over for years!

I plan to be a bit more diligent from now on about that site.

I already deleted my LinkedIn account.

Hey, I'm retired - why would I need that job networking site?

I absolutely do not!

Now, I wonder what other detritus I'm carrying around on the ether?