A friend recently convinced me to join Facebook. She said it was a great way to reconnect with long-lost acquaintances and keep in touch with friends who are far away.

She's right. Facebook allows registered users to set up their own pages with a profile, photos and pretty much whatever personal information you choose to disclose.

The service is free and it takes less than five minutes to get started. Once
you're on, other registered users who type your name in Facebook's
search engine can send you a "friend request." If you accept, the
other person has access to your page and vice versa.

Facebook has 150 million registered users, according to a company fact sheet, and they spend some 3 billion minutes on the site each day.

Friends can send each other all kinds of messages and requests. They can ask for "25 Random Things" about you. They can invite you to join groups
about their favorite books or TV shows and they can post political messages that appear on your site, whether you agree with them or not.

Most popular of all is the status update. It's at the top of your page, and starts out with "Jan is ..." You fill in the blank and the message is there on your page for all to see.

And, unless you turn it off, your friends' status updates will be posted on
your page, too.

What this means is you know what all your Facebook friends are thinking and doing, all the time. One is getting a hair cut today. One had hot dogs for dinner. Another is ready for bed.

Do I really need to know all that right at this moment?

By the same token, do they need to know that I'm cold or that I'm going grocery shopping or that my bathrooms need cleaning?

The average Facebook user has 100 confirmed friends, according to the fact
sheet. I have 77.

I'd never keep in regular contact with 77 people in real life.

On the other hand, would having more Facebook friends make me seem more
popular? Would I feel better about myself?

I think the fact that I'm obsessing about this is a sign that I need to
take a break from Facebook, at least for today.

And I will.

Just as soon as I update my status.

I love facebook. I was made to join years ago because my friend wanted to collect more friends. Since now I'm in Oklahoma, way too far from Michigan, its a great tool to talk to my cousins. However I was not pleased when I was tagged for the "25 Random Facts" things the other night! I was hoping to avoid it!!

I so understand your obsession and hesitation with Facebook. I first registered with my maiden name and my high school and what year I graduated. I started getting requests from people that I had went to school with but wasn't really friends with. Then I started seeing who other people were friends with and it all went back to what felt like jr. high. I started thinking are they going to want me to be there friend and what if they say something about me. Blah blah blah. I decided it wasn't worth it and deactivated my account. A friend kept pushing me to re-join and I did but this time I went with my married name and kept all of my school information out. I also put my kids picture up as my profile picture. This way, people don't know who I am unless they know me currently. It has really slowed down all the "will you be my friend?" requests. It's fun but so annoying and addictive at the same time!

Being one of your age 50+ bloggers, I don't comprehend some of this fancy technology. A few months ago, I asked Jen what this "facebook" thing was all about. She explained how it works and what happened to her when she first signed up. It made me think - Am I to old for this stuff????

mwmxkitty - I loved reading everyone else's 25 things, but am still working on my own. I guess it's one of those things where I'm selfish - I want others to do it, but I don't want to take the time to participate myself! ........ sorensen17 - I have experienced some of that, too, and am thinking of just ignoring some of the friend requests. But then I feel rude! And I do enjoy keeping up with the people that I WANT to keep up with. ...... MIssy - funny. I recently read a story about top tech trends of 2008. One of them was "The moms have discovered Facebook!" So pretty soon it won't be cool any more, and I'll have no idea how to do the next biggest thing!

Ok - the facts are in... I'm officially old. I'm with Missy on this one (I'm 45, but still trying to convince myself that 45 is the new 30), I just not all that into this newfangled technology. It seems like information overload to me. I don't have facebook, myspace, or any of the others and I'm gettin' by just fine. I barely have time to connect with the people I love who are already in my life; adding more just isn't a priority. I even turn my cell phone off when I get home (I know - the horror!) because I figure the cell phone is MY convenience for in case I need to make a call - not for people to be able to contact me 24/7. My kids think I'm a dinosaur and I'm starting to think they might be right!

carolmac - you are probably smarter than the rest of us. God forbid I am ever without my phone, and I just got a new one with unlimited internet access. It's also got a little icon on the screen that takes me right to Facebook!

I have loved Facebook but of course I just turned 29 today. I have just recently reconnected with someone I considered a big sister growing up....hadn't been in touch in years. Oh and my mom just joined today and made my day! I told her it was so great, I was considering it a birthday present.

Nonnie48 - Happy Birthday, and good for your mom!

I admit it, I'm addicted. I use it more to keep up with friends at school for projects and deployed friends who I graduated with. Either way, I love it and think it can be very useful, if not abused.

I found this blog through your comment on the Army Wives group in Facebook! Since I, too, am from Ft. Riley, I thought I would check it out. See, Facebook is a good thing!

LOL!!!! This was the first year I didn't send letters with our Christmas cards because it seemed so silly to formalize all the daily updates everyone already got. I agree about information overload, and feeling obligated to accept friends you kindasorta used to know...but I think at this point I am curious about how people turned out and what they are up to rather than being a popularity contest. And the whole networking aspect seemed to work pretty well when my wall was filled with long lost "friends" wanting a place to stay for the Super Bowl!!!

Yes, I guess Facebook does have it good points - and I am back on and full-boogie-tilt addicted now!