The Facebook Friend

I went to a play reading last night hosted by a lovely, young, recent Carnegie Mellon grad. Among the attendees were about 9 or 10 equally lovely and young drama school graduates and recent L.A. transplants and my friend, Rob, and I. Now, Rob and I are lovely and young-ISH. Let's say I'm young compared to Stella Adler. Wait, she's no longer living you say? Well, you get the point.

In any case, I was sharing a small sofa with one of the exuberant, talented youths and I was so taken with his joie de vive that at the end of the evening I found myself asking if he was on facebook. Now, I don't know about the younger set, but I view becoming a facebook friend equivalent to a more benign version of "Can I have your number?" without all the sexual overtones and come on implications. Like a, "Let's have lunch" kind of thing. What I may fail to recognize is that for the 22-24, befriending someone on facebook, may be on par with the 70s pick up, "Your place or mine?" God, I hope not. This poor boy may be mortified. I mean, I read Arkadina last night for Christsakes...I played a cougar mom. Sweet Lord.

But this whole thing got me to thinking about facebook, which is a great invention. I mean, I've reconnected with people I thought I would never speak to again...never locate again. But I mean, there are friends and then there are facebook friends. The problem with facebook friending is, you may never actually speak again...you'll just say "Happy Birthday" every year or so. Or worse, you may just be something which someone has accumulated...like tsochkis. Jeez, I'd hate to be just a figurine in someone's glass menagerie. But I'm sure I am.

Gosh, I hope I'm the unicorn.