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Facebook is not perfect. It has a lot of problems, technological and philosophical. It’s a walled garden. It’s easy to put content in, but hard to get it out. You can’t delete anything that goes into their system, no matter how hard you try. It provides a way for people to pester you who you’d perhaps rather forget. People use it as a proxy for the entire internet, and in so doing, provide a single corporation with control over their communication, and thus, in a way, their very lives.
But every once in a while, something magical happens. There is a person living across the country. We’re pretty much strangers now, but we knew each other as children, for a few years in passing. She was randomly reminded of me, and of a memory of our shared childhood, and Facebook gave her an easy way to share this memory without having to commit to much.
Facebook has significantly increased my nostalgia net, and the things that get caught in that net are surprising, intense, and emotionally satisfying in a unique way.