Let's "Face" It!

In the past week there have been two full blown articles about Facebook in papers as diverse as The Spokesman Review out of Spokane, Washington and London's Financial Times . For the one or two of you who don't know what Facebook is, it's a social networking sight.

I had absolutely no interest in checking it out. I blog. That's enough, so I thought. Now, once again, as with blogging, I'm hooked.

A former neighbor in Rochester who now lives in Napa asked me to join as a way to keep up with her myriad of activities. She is a busy gal to be sure and the only e-mails I get from her are those irritating "forwards" of corny sentiments and cute animals. So I took the plunge.

With a high school reunion coming up I first started looking for old classmates. Then family. Then a few fellow bloggers who I had seen mention it from time to time. Then I started going through my address book and putting in e-mails of people I like which morphed into looking for names of people I know at random. Wow. I was having such fun. I now have more "friends" on Facebook, as few as they are, then I have in the community in which I live. Hmmm. That doesn't say much good about my social skills does it!

I like my friends list though. It's a who's who of the local blogging community plus a lot of cyber friends from around the world. Most of them read my blog and I theirs. Unless, however, we've developed a "personal" relationship with e-mails beyond blog comments, or their sites are strictly diaries of sorts, I don't know much about them as individuals.

That's where I find I love Facebook. It really gives me insight into their lives; who they really are and what they're about.

I've got a couple of former Spokesman reporters who were hit by the massive downsizing. They've taken control of their lives and gone off in new and fascinating directions. I have city council members, news columnists and political party bigwigs. I have three veterinarians - Bacchus' cardiologist, his local vet and a wonderful lady who has been a vet for over 30 years in New Zealand.

I have friends and friends of friends and I'm taking the time to get to know each of them. This is better than the pen pals we had as kids!

I'm not moving on to Twitter. I haven't the time nor the inclination. But I do love Facebook and for all those who have become my "friends", thanks. You're quite a community!