What I Think about Facebook

I can recall vividly the first time I heard the word "Internet" used. It was the fall of 1996. 14 years later, I can't imagine my world without it. Not just 3 years ago I was sitting in the cafeteria of a church in Biloxi, MS when Bret Norton asked me if I wanted her to create a Facebook account for me. I thought, what the heck, knowing full well that my MySpace site was coming along just nicely. A year later, the plug-ins on my MySpace page began to fail and I decided to see what Bret and so many others from my church had been talking about. I quickly became a hardcore Facebook user (and leaving my MySpace page behind for good). Since then, I have done the following:

- Reconnected with dozens of elementary, high school and college friends, most of whom I hadn't heard from in years.
- Found new ways to share stories, photos and links with my "core" group of friends.
- Found new ways to connect with members of my church, workplace and other activities I've done, like Camp Floyd Rogers and PCM Youth Group.
- Reconnected with ex-girlfriends.
- Learned the latest news about ex-friends.
- At times, learned WAY more about the lives and feelings of my friends.
- Reviewed the interests of potential employees and girlfriends.

Facebook is a wonderful tool for connecting people over this flat world. Accessible from anywhere in the world, including my smartphone, I can be sitting in the airport and get updates on my friends, send them notes about where I am and what I've seen, and stay connected to those people who matter most to me in the world.

As much as I would like to make Facebook mandatory for people to use and update at least once a week, I have noticed a few good and bad things ...

- Games and applications in Facebook bore the crap out of me. Anyone who is addicted, and they do get addicted, to Farmville and/or Mafia Wars have my pity. I enjoy a good game as much as the next guy, but that stuff would put me to sleep. Instead, I have to comb through countless updates for these apps from my friends. I'm very happy that they have managed to build families of anteaters while their kids are getting C's on their homework assignments.
- Attention all college students ... the adults you added as friends in high school are reading about all the shit you're doing in college. We can even see the pictures. Please note BEFORE updating your information.
- It's okay to curse once in a while, but think of it like public speaking ... eventually you're going to upset people, and rightfully so.
- I'm amazed there aren't more outbreaks of spyware from Facebook.
- As much as I would like them to see all the pictures and stories from my life on a daily basis, I'm actually pretty glad most of my family (especially my parents) do not have Facebook accounts.
- I swear, when I filled out the "Interested" portion of the personal information, I thought they meant "interested in meeting" not "interested in relationships with." If I'd know that, I wouldn't have had men and women selected, just the womenfolk. Sorry, guys.
- It's funny and sad that I learn more about my friends' relationships from Facebook statuses than from them directly. You want to know if a couple is still together? Check their Facebook info.
- It still seems hard to meet single people through Facebook. Now, getting to know someone through Facebook is easy as pie.
- Did I mention how annoying the application updates are?
- Facebook Stalking ... it's safer than doing it in real life.
- Thank god people have an unwritten discipline to use Twitter for hourly updates and Facebook for the important stuff.

Where will Facebook end? Will they start charging for it? Will we become a society who relies more on texts and Facebook messages to communicate with each other? I hope we never get so distanced from each other, but you've got to admit it's an easier way to let 500+ people know my latest good/bad news without making so many phone calls, e-mails or personal appearances. If nothing else, it's allowed me to connect with more people throughout the world ... especially those people who found out about this blog through my Facebook account.