I have 619 friends on Facebook, so why do I feel so lonely? Surely I am not the only one who feels like social media has made us less social, more distant. I cannot be the only one who thinks that there is a considerable gap, and overwhelming loneliness now that we all connect online.

Don’t get me wrong; I have never been good at making friends. I have some dear beautiful people in my life that are better friends with their friends then I am to them, and so it is no wonder that they don’t reach out more to me. I know people, women, whom I have known for over half my life.

I don’t keep and maintain friendships. Sure we comment on each others posts, and we have shared memories. But they haven’t been invited to my home recently, and that is my fault. So while I sit here lamenting the fact that social media has made me feel less social, I know that most of it is my fault.

Still, it would be nice if we popped in on friends, or called each other more often. I wish my friends, and I exchanged snail mail, or met up for a cup of coffee or just got together to sit on the porch. I miss that.

I appreciate that all this technology has made us busier than we were in the past. But it’s not even that, because while I know that social media has dictated friendship at an arm's length not everyone is experiencing the loneliness that I am.

I know that my good friends who used to hang out, go for coffee, or talk on the phone still do that with their other friends, that something in me changed to make it harder if not impossible to maintain that type of friendship. I know I could reach out, call people more, write letters, send Christmas cards more.

It is possible to break through the wall that is Facebook, yet I hold back. Loneliness overwhelms me and keeps me separated. Maybe I don’t make more of an effort to build and maintain friendships because if it doesn’t work if I don’t connect, then I feel even worse, then I do now.

Am I the only one? Are there others out there who feel that all this technology has built up a wall around us?

I cannot help but think of Reagans most famous line, “tear down this wall” and as I think of that I cannot help but wonder if now is a good time for us to tear down this wall that technology has erected around us.

I cannot help but wonder if now isn’ a good time to stop hiding behind Facebook and start making more of an effort as a friend, letting go of this crutch and taking that risk, so that I can have the kind of friends I used to.