Trapped in Facebook

Yes, it looks like I've gotten enmeshed in the social net that is Facebook. I've never put much store into social networking sites other than to establish an Internet presence but Facebook is different. It has apps you can play with plus a score of other features. But that's not all - you can't just add people willy-nilly. It forces you to have some kind of connection to them, which is a layer of protection, I guess. I also get to customize which details get shown to whom, which was the main requirement for me. A girl can't be too careful these days. Lastly, you get a summary of the updates your friends have done on their Facebook accounts. For spot updates, it beats watching other people's blogs using RSS. Should you wish to do so, you can also use it to communicate presence info. Quite nifty.

It's fun to go hunting for old acquaintances and friends. Kind of like hunting through the obituary but in reverse. Yes, folks - the draw of Facebook is a mix of curiousity and the need for closure. :)

I've been updating my list of friends (those of you I can find, anyway) plus adding interest groups too. Pandering to my sense of nostalgia too, I joined an interest group of my very first true computer. It put a huge smile on my face - I spent many a day coding that machine in BASIC, assembly and Forth back when I was a child. It eventually led me down the path of being a computer scientist, so I guess it paid off. It's both comforting and disturbing to join that community, reading posts about long-dead games and never-to-be-forgotten experiences that make up our collective consciousness. I still hear its singularly unique tape headers in my dreams sometimes.

I haven't uploaded my pic on Facebook yet and I won't until I get my hair done. For that to happen, I have to remember to make an appointment with my salon. And for that happen, I need to make a lot more money to pay the extortionist rates they charge for a simple trim. Ugh. Things were a lot simpler (and cheaper) back in the day...