The sidekick has been kicked off postrantrant

The Ranter and I have been watching youtube videos from the subculture of ‘let’s criticise Christian subculture’. There is surprisingly quite a lot in this sub-subculture! Lots of it seems to be criticising Hillsongs, but I’ll leave that for a Ranter post (she’s having trouble using Youtube on her Blogger account).  

This weekend the Ranter and I joined Facebook, the latest internet networking craze (under our real names for those of you who know these). Having explored it a bit I’m not too sure about it. The advantages are that it’s a fun and easy way to keep up-to-date with what all of your friends are up to. The downside is that it evoked the same mix of emotions in me that Reunion style events stir. I felt nervous about publishing my details and there was that ‘will they think I’m a failure?’ feeling that you get going back to school. I’m surprised really that I feel like this because although I’m not traditionally successful, I like my job (and it’s worthy enough that you get credit for that, to outweigh not having much money) and I’m married before 30 which is another female marker for success. I think that it’s a lot to do with the fact that I’ve married a woman which is what I’m nervous about, especially with past Christian friends who I’ve lost touch with. I’m increasingly surprised at how many small things are affected by this. I would like to be strong enough to think ‘sod them’ but I’m not this strong and don’t feel like I can cope with people from the past reacting by telling me my relationship is wrong, when most people would expect a ‘congratulations’ response. Perhaps I’m misjudging the people I used to know, after all they may mistakenly put me in this category. 

Anyway, I got around this issue by putting lots of obviously false information in with bits of truth. Hopefully this will amuse those who really know me and just confuse those who don’t!  Another use for facebook (which could be seen as positive or negative depending on your perspective) is that you can be nosy about people without having to communicate with them! Last night I looked up lots of old church contacts and could find out what they’re up to now. I haven’t found anyone who has done anything surprising yet though, or perhaps they’re all too scared to put surprises on facebook!