On April 3 I was invited to join Facebook. This would not normally be a problem, but I was intentionally avoiding joining another social networking site. I joined Classmates many years ago, but it really served no purpose and turned out to be nothing but a spam generator. However, since I was specifically invited to join by a good friend (or I though so, it may have been a scan of his contact list), I figured I could not decline.

At that point I decided to start an experiment. I would not add any new friends myself, just approve anybody who found me as long as I actually knew them. Well, it is 19 days later, and I now have 22 friends. Not a large number by any stretch of the imagination, but the composition is interesting. Most of the friends are not people I hang out with regularly, but people from my past. Some have moved away, others that I just don’t see much anymore and others are people I haven’t seen since high school.

I have to admit, I am a little impressed with Facebook. The site is virtually free (accept for the gifts portion) and the advertising is kept to a minimum. Facebook makes it very easy to track down people and see where they are now. Since I missed my 10 year high school reunion this year (I had a funeral to attend), I have found the site useful in finding out what others are doing these days.

So today ends the Facebook experiment. Since my experience has been good thus far, I have decided to stop being passive. Over time I am going to actively add people, and try to keep my page somewhat up to date. Of course Facebook will be lower on priority list since since it is not a necessity of my life. I just hope I don’t get addicted to the site like some people I know (you know who you are).