Comments on: Esther Kane on: Blasts from the Past http://womenatforty.com/2010/02/esther-kane-on-blasts-from-the-past/ Life. Love. Reality. In our fortieth year. Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:06:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: RachelDachel http://womenatforty.com/2010/02/esther-kane-on-blasts-from-the-past/comment-page-1/#comment-338 RachelDachel Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:04:45 +0000 http://womenatforty.com/?p=1214#comment-338 TJL I wholeheartedly agree with you about blaming the person rather than the medium, but I disagree about not having an "ignore" button in real life... I went away to college after high school and was only close to a few people with whom I kept in touch. I then moved across the country, again, keeping in touch with a select few. Occasionally, when visiting home during the holidays, someone from high school would approach me in the mall or at a movie theater & say, "Hey! Rachel Dachel—I haven't seen you since high school...." I'd look them squarely in the eye and either pretend not to speak a word of English or swear that I was not Rachel Dachel. LOL at their puzzled reactions and then telling me how much I look like one of their old classmates! It might sound like a mean thing to do, but I figured eh, if I've lived this long without traipsing down memory lane (granted, a short trip for these peripheral acquaintances) with them, why change it? TJL I wholeheartedly agree with you about blaming the person rather than the medium, but I disagree about not having an “ignore” button in real life… I went away to college after high school and was only close to a few people with whom I kept in touch. I then moved across the country, again, keeping in touch with a select few. Occasionally, when visiting home during the holidays, someone from high school would approach me in the mall or at a movie theater & say, “Hey! Rachel Dachel—I haven't seen you since high school….” I'd look them squarely in the eye and either pretend not to speak a word of English or swear that I was not Rachel Dachel. LOL at their puzzled reactions and then telling me how much I look like one of their old classmates! It might sound like a mean thing to do, but I figured eh, if I've lived this long without traipsing down memory lane (granted, a short trip for these peripheral acquaintances) with them, why change it?

]]> By: TJL http://womenatforty.com/2010/02/esther-kane-on-blasts-from-the-past/comment-page-1/#comment-337 TJL Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:49:23 +0000 http://womenatforty.com/?p=1214#comment-337 I think Esther's advice is very sound, but I think it's applicable to life in general vs. facebook specific. People think of social networking as a bigger mystery than necessary. What do you do if you bump into someone from your past (in person)? Hopefully, use Esther's advice. Though exceptions must be made - there's no "ignore" button to click on, if you don't want to be bothered, no profile to peruse in preparation for the encounter. Navigating in-person situations is actually much trickier than on Facebook. Like with anything else, each person should use the best method(s) of communication to suit his/her own needs. I have my own qualms with Facebook, believe me... but, I think it gets blamed for far too much. For instance, if a person's philandering ways are exposed on Facebook, then it's the individual who should be blamed not the medium. I think Esther's advice is very sound, but I think it's applicable to life in general vs. facebook specific. People think of social networking as a bigger mystery than necessary. What do you do if you bump into someone from your past (in person)? Hopefully, use Esther's advice. Though exceptions must be made – there's no “ignore” button to click on, if you don't want to be bothered, no profile to peruse in preparation for the encounter. Navigating in-person situations is actually much trickier than on Facebook. Like with anything else, each person should use the best method(s) of communication to suit his/her own needs. I have my own qualms with Facebook, believe me… but, I think it gets blamed for far too much. For instance, if a person's philandering ways are exposed on Facebook, then it's the individual who should be blamed not the medium.

]]> By: SimplyForties http://womenatforty.com/2010/02/esther-kane-on-blasts-from-the-past/comment-page-1/#comment-336 SimplyForties Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:29:53 +0000 http://womenatforty.com/?p=1214#comment-336 This just happened to me for the first time a couple of days ago. Because of my blog, from time to time I get friend requests on Facebook from people I don't know. I accepted one from a male whose name I didn't recognize. Almost immediately a chat window popped up from this guy saying, "I didn't think you'd remember me". I had to apologize profusely admitting I didn't have any idea who he was. Turns out he was the first guy I dated when I went off to college, 32 years ago. We dated for a couple of months, broke up and I never thought about him again.<br><br>He chatted with me for awhile, telling me he was married with children. He talked about his job and his life. He also mentioned some incident he remembered from when we dated, which I did not recall. I don't know what he was after but it made me uncomfortable. He signed off saying, "Keep in touch". I said "goodbye", closed the chat window and promptly removed him from my friend list. It was a strange experience. This just happened to me for the first time a couple of days ago. Because of my blog, from time to time I get friend requests on Facebook from people I don't know. I accepted one from a male whose name I didn't recognize. Almost immediately a chat window popped up from this guy saying, “I didn't think you'd remember me”. I had to apologize profusely admitting I didn't have any idea who he was. Turns out he was the first guy I dated when I went off to college, 32 years ago. We dated for a couple of months, broke up and I never thought about him again.

He chatted with me for awhile, telling me he was married with children. He talked about his job and his life. He also mentioned some incident he remembered from when we dated, which I did not recall. I don't know what he was after but it made me uncomfortable. He signed off saying, “Keep in touch”. I said “goodbye”, closed the chat window and promptly removed him from my friend list. It was a strange experience.

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