To delete or to stay

that really is the question.

Today is, apparently, delete your Facebook account day...and I'm torn. Sort of. I'm pretty sure today is NOT the day I'm going to delete my Facebook account. Facebook doesn't want people to go so it doesn't make it easy to delete your account - but it's pretty simple to deactivate it.

I'm not sure I like the way the site has gone in terms of privacy. What if I don't want people to see what I look like unless I add them? I know, I know, I have a blog, but *I* choose what goes on here and I *know* that the entire internet can see everything I post. I have kept both of those ideas in the back of my mind with Facebook too. Even though I can set my privacy settings, it's still the internet and really, it's still pretty much like showing the whole internet.

I had, at last count, 412 friends. Really? Do I really have 412 friends? Seems so...I've met all but one of them. I checked. The one I haven't met was my pen pal when I was a kid, back when we used paper and pens to communicate, not computers and keyboards. But I know everyone on my list. I could (hopefully) tell you at least one interesting thing about each of them too. And by interesting I don't mean "I worked with her at _________" or "I went to school with him at _________" I mean more like "One time she left her room unlocked when she went to the library (well, okay, maybe we stole her keys) and when she came back her room was a mirror image of what it was when she left. Furniture, papers, posters. Everything."

Do I spend too much time on Facebook. For sure. Am I trying to cut back. Most definitely. Is it working? YES! Going to the park and making muffins and even cleaning the bathroom are all more fun, more productive or both.

But I'm not ready to give it up. I lived overseas and worked with a very diverse, very international group of people for so long that I have many good friends around the world. And most of us just don't have time to write letters or send email anymore. And Facebook lets me stay in touch with them and see how cute their kids are and all that...so I'm not going. But I am going to show a little more restraint and watch what they do with my privacy settings!