Kind of Addictive

One of my grad school friends invited me to join Facebook (a social networking site where people can communicate with friends, for those of you that are even later-adopters than I am). When it first started, it was pretty much just for college students, but now it's expanded so that anyone can join (for free). People post profiles, which can include pictures, favorite movies, activities, school history, and so on. There are also tons of other applications that you can use (maps to track places you've been; games to play; groups to support various causes; and the list goes on and on). You can also update your status: "what are you doing right now?" When I talked to my students about it a few years ago, they informed me that people go through a Facebook addiction phase. (I'm sure the addictive quality is worse when you're actually in college and have another way to keep up with all your friends.)

You can set your profile so that it can only be seen by your "friends", people that you authorize (or "friend" -- apparently the already-existing verb "befriend" is too long and complicated for the Internet generation). It's amusing to see an announcement that "So-and-so and Thus-and-Such are now friends" when the people in question have actually been friends in real life for twenty years or more.

And I have to admit, at least for the moment, it's a lot of fun! It's been a quick way to catch up with a lot of people who I'd been out of touch with for a while -- friends from high school, mostly. Although I did also find my best friend from elementary school on there -- we'll see if she writes back!

I've found out about weddings, babies, and one tragedy. (The daughter of one of my professors from graduate school -- only fourteen years old -- has developed a rare and probably fatal condition that affects her motor functions. It may have been triggered by a vaccine, but they don't know for sure. If you want to know more, you can read about it here: http://www.jenjensfamily.blogspot.com/ ).