The Power of Facebook

What is Facebook? For me, the answer to that question has changed over the past couple months. Prior to signing up, I had a preconceived idea of what it was- a site just like MySpace for teenyboppers who thrive on drama, who's hooking up with who, and what so-and-so said about so-and-so. They all tYpEd LikE tHiS to simulate graffiti in an effort to sound/look ghetto, they all listened to rap music, and they were all 14 years old acting like 18 year olds.

Now that I've actually created a Facebook account, I realize I was wrong. My idea that Facebook was just another MySpace is out the window. I now see Facebook as an amazing tool for getting in touch with people from the past who I never expected to be in touch with again; a way to connect people with long lost friends, family, acquaintences, and even some former undesireables with whom one may want to start a clean slate. The funny thing is, I didn't have any real desire to find many lost contacts from my past when I signed up. I was not tossing and turning at night wondering what happened to anyone, and my life would have continued on unphased had I never joined. I signed up out of curiosity after hearing some of my peers talk about it. And I'm glad that I did.

People I have reconnected with include childhood friends, classmates from grade school and high school, former coworkers, long lost family, and most importantly, some people who were very good friends at different points in my life. There are friends who I spent some of the formative years of my life growing up with that I had not been in touch with for 10 to 20 or more years. In addition, it's a way to maintain contact with current friends, family, and acquaintances- not just from the past.

One might say, "I don't need to reconnect with anyone from my past. I have no desire to seek people out and rekindle a connection to anyone- my life is complicated enough." Fair enough. I can't argue with that. But another cool thing about Facebook is that Facebook itself is a "meeting place". There is not necessarily a need to physically meet anyone, or even call anyone (unless one chooses to do so). It is somewhat of a live pipeline where the latest news, photos, thoughts, accompishments, interests, and status of your connections are a click away. Very little effort is required to do the Facebook thing.

The power of Facebook to connect people to one another is an amazing phenomenon. It's another example of how technology has changed our society (keep in mind the internet only became popular and widely used just 10 years ago). Now we just need someone to invent the teleporter so we can go visit everyone on our friends list.

http://www.facebook.com/