Another innocent has been claimed by the Penn State University scandal. Me. I have been de-friended on Facebook because I didn't share a harsh view of the situation. Now, I'm not one for counting up all of my FB friends and taking pride in a number or anything of that sort, however, I think that to take the effort to de-friend someone simply because they don't share your opinion, is a bit much. Though, who am I to question someone who thinks I'm "annoying, and an idiot?".. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Basically it went down like this.
Ex-friend posts status that says (to paraphrase, because I can no longer see the post, as I have been de-friended, blocked, divorced, erased from memory, hard deleted, etc)..
"Penn State University should lose all of their games, because they should not be allowed any happiness after the things that Sandusky did."
or at least, something like that, and so I responded, disagreeing, on the simple principle that such a sentiment punishes MORE innocents. The student athletes who have worked VERY hard for much of their life to get a scholarship and a chance to play for a D-1 football team, do not deserve to suffer the repercussions of the evil, despicable things that Sandusky did to those innocent boys. They deserve every opportunity to succeed, and to wish ill upon them for their coach's crimes is like blaming a son to bare the sins of his father.
He responded with an inane argument about how "if I had kids, I would understand."
As if the concept that pedophilia is the WORST crime a person can commit can only be comprehended by those who have sired children.
I countered his argument with something along these lines.
"Don't give me that 'if you had kids' bull simply because you don't have a compelling argument. How different your opinion would be if you were the father of one of the athletes playing for PSU"
Anyway.. shortly after that I was de-friended, end of story, end of relationship...
Now, don't get me wrong. Joe and I were never the greatest of friends, with many rocky moments. We simply played a club sport together at the university we both attended. In fact, I hardly call this a loss. Though, clearly, it irks me on some level, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it, would I?
I guess it begs the question, "how close are we, or were we to our friends on our friendslist on social networking sites?".. To be honest, I have "friended" basically anyone I have had a conversation with. I am not that shallow am I? I suppose, if I'm honest with myself, I probably am. Or certainly, it's nice to have lots of status updates to read. Certainly, there are friends who I am close to, or at least was close enough to in the past, that keeping up with them vaguely through a social network is preferable to actually keeping in touch with them on a phone or by letter.. or *gasp* by getting together with them in person.
Have social networking sites actually skewed our view on what friends are? I have to think that people don't expect or think that they have as many friends as their FaceBook friends list indicates. I mean.. I was friends with this Joe, even though he essentially is a person that I disagree with on most issues. Even though when I took over for him as president for the aforementioned club team, he A) stole the team's digital camera and B) left us with a bank account consisting of negative numbers.. he also bailed on me and his friend when looking for a third roommate. Maybe I was just naive enough to think we should be friends. Clearly, while maybe we were friendly at times, we were never actually friends. I know what a friend is, I have only a few, but I cherish their friendship as much as I cherish my relationship with my wife.
I think it's clear that social networks have given us the illusion that we are friendly with more people than we would actually tolerate in reality. I challenge anyone to look at their friends list and count the people from the list you would actually like to have a conversation with. I bet the number is less than 50. I bet my number could be smaller than that (out of 550+ friends on FB.. that is.. well, sad). Though, in general, I hate people, so my response should be ignored. I am sure there are cheery people who would number more along the lines of 100%, but who could stand them anyway? I guess it just suggests that maybe we don't know what "being a friend" means anymore. I think I know, but sometimes it seems that other people do not. What do you think?
Ok, that was sappy, and for that I apologize. This was supposed to be edgy and clever, but whatever, sometimes you just gotta say what you gotta say and that's that.
Until next time.
Remember, use some common sense. There isn't enough of it out there.
