Spacebook? No. My Face. Wait, no. Facebook.

A couple months ago I got myself a facebook account. I have mixed feelings about it, especially as I've been spending more time on it in recent weeks. I blame it a bit for my lack of blogging recently.

I should probably explain what facebook is for those of you who are more than a decade older than me. Facebook is a social network on the internet to keep in touch with friends. You can view the profiles of friends and see pictures of them, read about their interests, write on a part of their profile called a "wall", and many other things.

I joined facebook initially so I could get copies of my classmate's senior trip pictures whch she posted on her profile. I guess it's good that I did because facebook is how everyone keeps in touch now. E-mail is just way too personal, I guess.

I think facebook is over-rated. It's fun to look at friend's pictures but I'd rather they posted pictures on a blog. That way they'd be more discriminating since pictures take ages to upload on blogger! The profile stating interests and activities is okay, but if that person is really your friend shouldn't you know that stuff already? The wall, I guess, is a good way to greet people you otherwise wouldn't stay in touch with, but generally wall posts tend to be banal and silly even if you do know the person well. (there are exceptions) And they don't make for the best reading since one person's wall will be half of a dozen different conversations.

But at the same time I'm grateful for facebook. I'm now "facebook friends" with many of the people I went to Reynosa with, even with one guy I met in the airport who had also been on a missions trip. These are all really neat people whom I enjoyed working with and getting to know and if it weren't for facebook we wouldn't be in touch at all.

One of facebooks redeeming features are its "groups". You can join a group about a certain topic or event, etc for discussion with other people in the group. That's a bit vague. For example, I am a member of a group started by one of my classmates called "Read: What Intelligent People Do". The idea was that we can recommend books and discuss what we've been reading. The problem is that nobody does. But that's another story. I'm also a member of a group called "Wheaton College Class of 2011". Us future Wheaties can write any questions we have on the group's wall and the group administrators, Wheaton students, will answer them. There are also discussion topics about the best way to buy books or what you will need for your dorm room, etc. Some of it is quite useful, but it's a drag looking through the stuff that isn't to find the good stuff.

I've been thinking a lot about facebook because through it I'm meeting my future classmates. I've gotten several friend requests from girls who will be on my floor, suitemates, etc. I don't quite know what to think of this. For one thing it means I'm spending more time updating my profile, creating photo albums, etc. If they're going to make the effort to "friend" me then I want there to be something for them to look at. Maybe this is a waste of time. It's addictive in a way. Maybe I should go on a weeklong facebook fast. I've visited the profiles of these girls too - looked at pictures of them, read their interests, activities, favorite quotes, etc. I wonder what's going to happen when I actually meet them. I don't know them, yet I know their birthday, the name of their boyfriend, and I've seen their prom pictures. They don't know me, but they've seen pictures of my niece and nephews. There is this bizarre mix of familiarity and something else that starts with an 's' or maybe an 'a' that I can't think of at this second.

Hmmph.

Will I give up on facebook? No.