My Friend Facebook

Oh, Facebook, how I have missed you. My account was hacked a few weeks ago; I am grateful to my Facebook (FB) friends who were quick to let me know that they had received friend requests from me/not me.  

I don't understand why anyone would want to hack my account.  Part of me doesn't want to know why...nothing good can come of this.  

So, I posted on FB that my account had been hacked, and warned my FB friends not to accept friend requests from the imposter Victoria.  I realized that the chances of all of my FB friends seeing that one post were slim and none, but I wasn't sure what else to do.  I also used FB Messenger to alert some folks and asked them to spread the word to our mutual friends.  Then, I shut down my FB account.  I shut it down.  Yep. 

All of this happened while I was out of the country celebrating my 40th (I KNOW!!!!  WOW!!!) wedding anniversary with my husband.  I was happily involved in an adventure, learning new things, meeting new people, eating, drinking, and sitting in the sun.  I was pretty darned content with life in general and without FB.  But, vacations end...back to reality.  It was then that I realized how much I had come to depend on FB.  I missed the connectivity that it enabled.  

FB is a blessing and a curse.  There are so many good things about it.  I enjoy seeing the everyday events in the lives of people with whom I don't have contact outside of this media. Without FB, birthdays, weddings, graduations, etc. would go by without my acknowledgement.  Friends become ill, or worse, and I was unaware. I realized after I shut down my account that the majority of my FB friends have only FB and Messenger access to communicate with me.  Very few of them have my phone number.  I guess they could find my street address, but who sends letters these days? I'm not sure what this says about the depth of my relationships, but I am a bit concerned.  I know I am an introvert at heart, but this was quite a revelation!  Lots of FB friends...not so many in my "real" life.  I don't quite know what to do about all of that.  

My retirement nearly two years ago meant that I wouldn't see or regularly communicate with the many colleagues and friends I had made over the years through work.  And then...the pandemic.  FB enabled continued contact with a number of folks whose paths I might otherwise not cross.  I have to say I miss all of that.  Facebook had become my friend: my source of information, gossip, good news and bad, encouragement, advice, envy, laughter, tears, comfort in its constant availability of...everything.  

So, I'm going to go back.  I will change my password frequently in an attempt to avoid another hack.  I hope I will also try harder to be a better friend to the real people in my life, and maybe not quite so obsessed with virtual lives.   

 

Comments

  1. Marian BeamanMay 11, 2021 at 9:39 AM

    You're back! As the saying goes, "You can't keep a good woman down!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VictoriaJune 1, 2021 at 6:35 AM

      Aw, thank you, Marian! I need to get back to reading YOUR blog. Don’t know where my days go...

      Delete

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