David Carr and Facebook, something I've been mulling about

Funny, this amusing and all too familiar David Carr NYT piece showed up the day after my last post on him. It's a fine example of what I so admire - funny and smart and to the point. I've been having my own struggles with Facebook. Originally it was lots of fun - excellent re-connection with some key friends from over the years. But now it's getting crowded with requests from strangers, or acquaintances, and I'm torn. I don't want to amass a crowd. I currently have 16 potential new friends that I'm hovering about. Some I just don't want to be connected with that way! And some I don't even know them enough to have an opinion. I feel a responsibility to be available with the new gig but not indiscriminate. I would like a separation between my real personal life and my work - though they overlap more than most, they still have their distinctions. Oiy.

The Media Equation

Hey, Friend, Do I Know You?

By DAVID CARR

Published: July 21, 2008

Not that long ago, I needed some advice on the book business and thought to ask my friend Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights” and “A Prayer for the City.” The only sticking point was, we’d never met.

Although he used to be a reporter, we are not what I would call peers. He wrote one of the greatest sports books ever, and oh, one of the best books about city government ever. “Friday Night Lights” became a movie and then a television series and apart from me being a hopeless fanboy of the show, we have nothing in common.

Other than Facebook, of course, where we are “friends,” after he was referred by our mutual friend Vernon Loeb of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Taking that supplied noun as a permission, I sent Mr. Bissinger a message on Facebook and asked for advice. We got on the phone and I found out exactly, precisely what I wanted to know from, as they say in the Web world, a highly trusted source.

Isn’t “friendship” wonderful? (continued)