One More Thing...
Won't You Be My Friend?
A few weeks ago, the cable television stunt man and daredevil Jesse James was a guest on David Letterman's show. During the show James told a story from his childhood about a time when he wrote an obscenity on a piece of paper, taped it to a rock and threw it through a neighbor's window. "That was my version of Twitter," he said.
Twitter is a form of "Social Networking", which is the new big thing on the internet nowadays. Twitter users (known as "tweeters") send out short cryptic messages that can be read by their "followers". Celebrities have found twitter to be a great way to communicate with their many fans. You may not realize this, but millions of "followers" hover over their BlackBerries and iPhones to read the latest profound thoughts from such people as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the instant they think them.
On Facebook, which is probably the most popular social networking site, users share photos, videos and stories with their "friends". It's a great way to reconnect with old friends, business associates or family members you've lost touch with. Facebook is reported to now have more than 250 million users worldwide.
Other popular social networking sites include MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, and the list goes on and on. Even plain old bloggers are now considered social networkers.
Social networking isn't new, of course. It's been around as long as stories have been told around campfires and rocks have been thrown at neighbors. But online, the geographical limitations are gone. On Facebook you can connect with friends just as easily whether they're in Dayton or Seattle or South America.
I've learned a lot about Facebook from my co-worker here at BMN, Vanessa. Vanessa is a long-time Facebook user and has a large number of friends on the site. This is because she's young, articulate and very socially adept. And it doesn't hurt that she photographs well. Vanessa has reconnected with many of her college friends, and she's "met" several people who are originally from Dayton but now live other places.
I, on the other hand, don't have a Facebook page. This is mostly because I'm convinced that my "friends" count would hover relentlessly somewhere shy of a dozen, (the number of friends you have is displayed prominently on your Facebook page). And so all of my social inadequacies would be exposed to the world – or at least to my 10 or 11 friends. No doubt they would soon begin dropping off.
I was surprised – shocked, quite frankly – to learn recently that another of those 250 million Facebook users is my mother. (I found this out because she and Vanessa are now Facebook "friends".) I saw mom's page and I was impressed. She already has a lot of friends, and while I hadn't ever really thought about it, she photographs well too.
That was the last straw, of course. One thing I can't handle is being less technologically advanced than my parents. So Facebook, here I come. In the next few weeks, I'll take a few photos and write up some pithy descriptions of some of the fun things I do (or maybe I'll make some up), and I'll join Facebook.
And I know this is cheating, but I'm going to make a public plea right here on the pages of Blue Mountain News. If you're on Facebook, please, I beg you, if only out of pity, be my friend. I want to see hundreds of friends on my page. No, make that thousands. Because if this Facebook thing doesn't work out, you're all my neighbors and I know where to get my hands on a lot of rocks.
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