Facebook Faux Pas

Before I get into the meat of this, let me tell you a little about my personality style. I have always cared WAY too much about what people think about me. If you gave me a choice on being 'right' or 'liked', I would definitely choose 'liked'. It's been the bane of my existence in many situations. It's hard to lead a project in the corporate world worrying too much about what people think of you. This personality trait has caused me much anxiety over the years.

Ok, background set (and if you know me, you know I haven't gone deeply enough into just how true this is).

The other night, I attended a hayride party at my friends' house. This is a favorite annual party of mine and my kids. It's our first time to get dressed up for Halloween and the hosts always go all out. Over the last few years, I've met many of their neighborhood friends. There are even a few I've become acquainted with enough to look forward to seeing them again.

As I'm catching up with one woman about what's going on in my life, she asks me how my photography business is coming. I'm surprised because we just talked about how it had been a year since we've seen each other and I didn't start this business until recently. I ask her how she knew and she responds, "I read it on your Facebook page."

Here, a smarter woman would have said, "Of course!" I, on the other hand, responded by asking, "Are we Facebook friends?" Now, go back and imagine me saying that in slow motion. Go ahead and laugh, it didn't happen to you.

Luckily, this particular woman is either WAY TOO nice, or she has a firm grasp on the divinely ridiculous. I fessed up to being an idiot, asked her her last name, made the connection, and told her she was the subject of my next blog post.

There's more to the story - like how we became friends in the context of Mafia Wars instead of under the true umbrella of friendship, but I'll not sully the story by giving myself too good an excuse.

When you respond to someone with the sentence, "Are we Facebook friends?" you probably have too many Facebook friends.