is…..

I was starting to feel a bit like the last kid to get a cellphone, you know the one that is holding out because he doesn’t think they make sense or are a good use of time and money? But it’s not really that kid who suffers from his or her lack of owning a cellphone, it is his or her friends who can’t get in touch with them and are frustrated by it.

I didn’t want to do it, I don’t really like the concept very much at all, but I finally joined facebook. People were bugging me about it, and I couldn’t hold out any longer – I don’t even have the excuse of pricey cell phone contracts that those from my previous example can use to defend their restraint from the societal norm. Facebook is free and I can ignore it if I want to.

But I ask myself – do I really need another way to ignore my friends? I already have a physical address, a home phone, a cell phone, 3 e mail addresses, a blog and amazingly enough I can also go visit people in person. Yet I am awful at keeping in touch, I just ignore most of my friends most of the time and my only real defence is that most of the time they ignore me too, so do I actually need another way to not kep in touch?

Facebook really is taking (has taken) over the world. I had someone tell me that they think people are using facebook less and less, but after having been on facebook since about 3pm yesterday afternoon – I now have 85 people who have been nice enough to acknowledge me as their friend (thanks guys, I feel so popular….). 85 people who I know have logged on to facebook in less than 24 hours – I don’t think it is going anywhere in a great hurry.

I am looking forward to receiving group invites to events, I am looking forward to being able to see peoples photos, but the main reason I joined is for about 10 friends who for some reason or another I have lost touch with over the years. The rest of you who have my e mail address - just use that please, then if I work it right I should be able to get in touch with those people get their e mail addresses and cancel my subscription.

There is some good stuff on there, but honestly – so much crap! Why do I care that someones status has changed to tell me that they are cooking dinner? For those who aren’t on it, there is this little line next to your name which says “Joe Smith is..” and you are supposed to fill in the blank. Features like this turn facebook from a useful tool in to a gimmick.

Anyway, maybe I will see you on there sometime, my status right now is “a little mad at himself for caving and joining facebook”.