Are You On Facebook?

It all started with the question, "Are you on Facebook?"

I was ask that question more than a dozen times by friends and family before I decided to brave the web's superhighway and head to this cyber hotspot.

What I did now about Facebook was that it was a "social network". It was developed by a student at Harvard University so students there could interact with each other.
With in a couple of years the site spread well beyond Harvard and college students and was now the cyber meeting place for over 150 million people world wide.

What I feared about Facebook was that it would be a mirror image of the spam infested, tricked out ghetto world of MySpace, a site that I personally couldn't run far enough away from. This was the main reason I resisted the call from my friends to join.

I admit when I joined Facebook, I was confused. I didn't see what the big deal was. I connected with a couple of people I knew that were on FB and we became "friends".
Then it started.

THE ATTACK OF THE FRIENDS

Almost immediately I started getting friend request. They were from family member, friends, people I work with, and even people I haven't seen in years.
I had no idea how they were finding me. I then realized that you could search for people you knew on FB through your email address book, the town and state you live in and even the schools you went to.

My friend list was growing and I admit I was liking it.

Now I admit I'm picky about who my "friends" are. I have some friends that I secretly call "friend whores" (opps, it's not a secret anymore.) These are the people that will take in anyone as friends just so their friend list is huge. OK, maybe it sounds like I might be a bit jealous because they have more friends than me but it's not. I could have as many friends if I wanted to. Maybe I don't want that many friends. I'm as popular as they are.... right? OMG I am jealous.

Within days of joining I found I was part of my very own network of friends who all hung out at this cyber club called Facebook.

We were sharing pictures, posting our thoughts in small blurbs that would instantly appear on the screen for all of our group to see.

The more they posted, the more I learned about these friends of mine. This tangled web of friends and family was proving a fun place to be.

In a typical day I might receive a cyber plant that would take a few days to grown into anything from a beautiful flower to mouth watering cheeseburger.
I would be part of my friend Joe's crime syndicate and make money for the Godfather in the game Mob Wars.
I would battle Todd to near exhaustion while looking for hidden words in the game Scramble.
I was competing with Gabby to see who was the biggest egg head in Brain Games.
We would all pass around cyber drinks to celebrate an event.
Cyber Halloween pumpkins, Christmas stockings were exchanged.
I was even kidnapped by being captured in a huge mouse trap and held in Las Vegas and wasn't released until I answered trivia questions correctly.

WORTH THE TRIP

I was beginning to see why this site was so popular. It was fun. It was a place to interact with people you care about. It was almost addicting.
If I was near a computer I found myself checking in with my friends. I was keeping up with people I seemed to have lost touch with over the years and saying hi to people I just saw a couple hours ago at work.

Facebook was a pleasant surprise. It's a comfortable place where you could go online and just pop in for a few minutes to catch up on some friends or even spend some serious time playing games, laughing and hanging out with people you might have lost contact with in the past.

I now find myself to be one of those people that ask others if they are members of this not so exclusive internet club and if they are I'll most likely welcome them into my social circle with open arm.

Now my question to you, the reader, is, "Are you on Facebook?"