Etiquette does not exist on the interwebs

I am addicted to the Internet. I can admit it and I have accepted it. And I am not inclined to do anything about it. But then there's Facebook. If I have the internet open, I will have Facebook open, too. It's awful. This being said, I am not the type of person who spends my time looking up people that I used to know. Occasionally, I'll see that they commented on a mutual friend's page, and I may click on their profile, but I do not add them as a friend.

Why? Because while I was momentarily interested in their current life, I don't care to have them know anything about mine. At least not at Facebook frequency.

I used to think it was petty to not accept friend requests, hell, I still do, IF you have physically been around that person recently and or see them often. In these instances you have the awkward encounter later where you know that they know that you did not "accept" their virtual friendship.

In fact there was one chick whom I used to see often, we would chat, always seemed to get along alright, had friends and acquaintances in common. Then she popped up on my homepage, you know, in the corner where it says "Hey, you might know this person because you have 29837298 friends in common." You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure. Anyway, I added her, and she did not accept.

Well, then I continued seeing her regularly, except now we didn't talk. And later, while we were leaving an afterparty, a mutual friend asked if we had met. I said "yes." She said "no." Awkward. Thankfully she moved and I haven't had to deal with the awkwardness since.

Facebook also has a way of making you feel like you know people that you don't. Their pictures pop up in your mini-feed where they've commented on your friends' statuses. When you're out you may see them, and you may know your name - and if you're me you feel the urge to say "Hi, Erica!" But you can't because they don't know you, and you have to remind yourself that you don't know them. It's just like high school when I'd hear someone call after someone in the hall, look to see who it was, and immediately know that name with that face and forever feel uncomfortable for walking past Jason or Mike or whoever because I knew who they were, but knew that I had no reason to.

Well there are people who I have rejected via Facebook because, as previously stated, I don't feel like they have any business knowing about my life, or my hobbies, or my favorite books or who my friends are. And I have no interest in theirs. And I know that I am not going to run into them - like the majority of the people from high school, especially the ones that stayed in Woodbridge. Or people from Church that I spent great amounts of time avoiding or faking a smile and mercilessly making fun of later with Christina. If not making fun of, then wondering why they didn't make more effort to improve upon their life. We only make fun of self-righteous, self-assured, obnoxious people - or people like us, but um...with bad hair and granny-panties.

Currently I have one person who lives far, far away hanging out with another person from high school. I'm just leaving them there. If I ignore them or delete them they will just add me again, and if I block them...I should just start blocking people. Though, doesn't it seem a bit harsh? Whatever.

I need to write a book on modern etiquette.