Oh, technology.

Facebook, Twitter, online banking, e-mail... These are all tools I use at least once a day. I never looked at them as barriers to real human contact and communication until I got a web-enabled cell phone. I should specify that honestly, I didn't buy the phone because it had web capabilities, really I didn't. My contract was up, it was time for a new phone, I had just lost my job, and so I got the one that was free. I never intended to use the web on my phone - that's what I pay for the internet at home for. But then, one month, I racked up a $15.00 bill for data transmission my cell phone used to download ringtones that I had purchased and paid for separately, so the cute salesman at Verizon Wireless suggested, "Why not just purchase a data plan? It'll waive the data charges you accumulated for this month, and for a flat monthly fee of $15.00, you can check your e-mail, surf the web, and use all the megabytes you want!"

I was sold, just for one month, I told myself. Just until the $15.00 charge passed by, and then I would call and cancel that data plan. Why would I need to check my e-mail from my phone? That's what my computer is for.

I bought that data plan in June. It is now October. Checking e-mail from my phone actually comes in quite handy. Logging into Facebook while I'm sitting in a waiting room makes time pass by more quickly. My addiction to dependence on use of technology is no less now than it was then.

I am especially guilty of relying on text messages for the bulk of my communication and I really can't remember what I did before I had a cell phone. I've never really been one for talking on the phone; so texting has been perfect for me. Thank God my grandma knows how to text. My other grandma and one of my grandpas knows how to e-mail, which is great. And my other grandpa has a cell phone that dials me at random as it moves around in his pocket. Oh well. I guess there's one in every bunch.

But my use of technology has gotten to the point where my friends and family are poking fun at me. They think it's excessive.

My brother, whose very cell phone keypad is glued to his fingertips based on the sheer number of text messages he can send in a day (once, he got in very big trouble for sending 349 text messages in a day -- ONE day!) thinks I'm a Facebook addict for checking FB from my phone on my downtime. I think that's laughable; coming from him, it's like the pot calling the kettle black.

My best friend, who only got a Facebook account because a few of her friends (me included) harassed her, thinks I have a serious problem. I argue that we have mutual friends whose problems are far worse than mine, but she does not back down. "When you are amongst the masses of people posting status updates of what you ate for dinner last night and how your leftovers tasted the next day," she argued, "you have a problem."

Today I posted this status update just to spite her:

Me Just for (best friend)... I'm eating last night's dinner leftovers for lunch today - and they are DELICIOUS -- maybe even better the second time! ;)

I texted her and told her I'd posted a status update in her honor. After she read it, she texted me one single, solitary word:

"Sad."

Sad, indeed. She just doesn't understand the glory of Facebook, is all.

But maybe -- just maybe -- I really have become too dependent on Facebook to fulfill my social needs. I mean, of course, nothing -- and I do mean not one damn thing -- beats face time with my closest friends. But for the rest, that would likely only be considered acquaintances or people I would see at reunions, I think Facebook is a great thing. It allows me to keep in touch with the people I want, ignore the people I don't, and control how much communication goes on (at least from my end). Not too long ago, I said (and I meant) that Facebook could replace my high school reunion and I wouldn't care. Of course, a large part of that had to do with my attitude towards high school in general, but really I still feel the same, regardless. As long as my high school friends keep posting pictures of themselves and their families and we exchange the occasional e-mail or wall post, that's good enough for me.

My best friend and I have a mutual friend acquaintance who relies on the internet for the purpose of reaching out to her social network far too much. If my best friend thinks I have problems, then really, this girl should be in rehab or something. A couple of weeks ago, the girl posted a message on my best friend's wall: "Get on Facebook! Your friends demand it!" which was both funny and maddening for reasons I won't go into here. But, knowing how the girl felt about my best friend's absence on the 'net, I saw fit to post this Tweet while the girl was studying for a rather important test:

"Slowly accepting that @best-friend's account is but a ghost in the Twitterverse. She's got her heart set on letting her "snail mail" flag fly."

I posted it mainly to irritate the girl who DEMANDED my best friend's presence on Facebook. She didn't take the bait like she normally does, but I felt better getting it out there anyway. But in the end, I guess it was also a message to myself: for as fun as I think it would be to have my best friend as a fellow "Tweep" and Facebooker, she's just not going for it. She really is intent on hoisting that snail mail flag; she told me so herself. She believes the written letter is a lost art. I believe that, as it has done with many other things (books with Kindles, VCR's with DVD players -- and even BluRay is hovering over DVD territory already), technology has rendered the written letter obsolete. But she normally wins our arguments, so let's just say she's right.

Last night, Eyewitness News teased a story on the 11 o'clock news: "Are you on 'social network' overload? How to get your life back, after the break."

I fell asleep before they came back from break, but I read the story today.

One person stated that indeed, she thought reading the mundane status updates of 200+ friends was annoying, but she simply read the updates of the people she really cared about, and skipped the rest. I felt like calling my best friend and telling her, "Ha! See? Don't READ about people's leftovers if it bothers you that much! But I'm still on Facebook, and last time I checked, you still cared about ME, so get on there, dammit!"

But I read on... and got slapped across the face by this: "That's what (Boyle) does but admits he'd like to get back to the basics of the phone and writing letters."

And it was like SHE called ME and said, "Ha! Get your sorry ass off of Facebook and actually WRITE a letter, you retard!"

So I guess there has to be a happy medium somewhere. I do really need to call Verizon and cancel that data plan. Aside from the fact that using my phone for functions that a computer was made for is redundant, $15.00 extra in my checking account is always a good thing. I'm not saying that I'm going to cut back on my Facebook usage on the internet, but I do agree the cell phone has to go. And maybe one of these days I will sit down and crank out a hand-written letter.... but no one should hold their breath for that one.