Of Facebook...

I came relatively late to Facebook, but the more I use it, the less I find myself caring about this blog, or about my faltering attempts to keep up contact with people on email, or about finding productive ways of using my time online; everything else seems to fall away and Facebook is the last man standing. As shallow as it often is, I'm falling into a bit of a habit, spending a couple of hours most  mornings reading my friends updates and watching often quite meaningless videos - bears stealing garbage cans, funny bleating goats, porcupines that get very expressive when eating, compilations of Nicolas Cage "losing his shit." It's a powerful distraction from anything one might want to avoid (like figuring out what to do with ones life, or the day at hand; how dull to find myself at such a juncture yet again, or, uh, still...). Mind you, it is interesting, knowing what various people, including some highly esteemed peers, are thinking, feeling, taking an interest in. It's also good for catching bits of news I might otherwise miss; more than one story I wrote for the Straight in the last year started with something I spotted on Facebook. All the same, it feels kind of destructive, neurotic, a bad habit to cultivate, something very easily abused. Is this a normal part of the Facebook experience? Or do I just need to get a life