I was trawling through my Facebook page trying to think back to how long I’ve been a member but there doesn’t seem to be a ‘member since’ section, shame. The thing that did occur to me though is how could we ever do without it now? It has had so much of an effect on people’s lives no matter where they are or who they are. Who hasn’t experienced something happening via Facebook that just would never have happened in real life. Real life, don’t you just love it, like any of us have real lives left when we turn the computer off! And yet our ‘new best friend’ is Facebook itself.

Initially I had my doubts, never been a My Space fan and without a demo to hawk around, why would I? But Facebook is totally different. My debut friend request came from someone even older than me which I have to confess made me sit up and think because to start with I thought, ah just for kids. I do admit  though it is a great way to find your children and connect, especially when they’re on a different continent. But then I can go on about the wonders of  Skype also. Stop!

It’s great to think the largest growth area on Facebook is now the over 35’s who have embraced it big time. Suddenly this demographic aren’t writing letters the way they used to and didn’t really even embrace e-mail for that purpose. Facebook is for everyone , everywhere. It does exactly what it says on the packet, it re connects people. We have people who we speak to regularly on there but that’s not the important bit, we have people on there who we thought we’d lost. For ever!

Every time you see a friend request you wonder, who could this be? Sometimes it’s someone with a need for popularity and who is just after numbers, the My Space disease. But then up pops that ‘Oh My God’ moment. I’ve had them as friends requests but I’ve also had them arrive as random e-mails. Either way don’t you just love those ‘Oh My God’ moments? I cannot count how many people I have reconnected with who through time or distance you just thought had gone. And then all of a sudden it’s like they never left. I’d never done ‘Friends Reunited’ at all and was delighted to be  a Facebook boy before most of my friends, I added them! To some I even had to explain what it was. Now there’s a first.

Just last week I received an enquiry from a lady by the name of Emily Liebert who had a very interesting book out culled from inspirational stories that came from Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/FacebookFairytales) Sadly mine didn’t qualify but my being back in touch after 41 years with a girl I used to walk home from school was pretty darn freaky. Now how on earth would she have found me? Actually I tell a lie, someone told her that I mentioned her in my book. Still it had to be Facebook that re connected us.

Of course we dare not think about all the lunatics out there who are seeing it as the ultimate tool for praying on young innocents. Fortunately though I don’t think Facebook has suffered as badly as it could have done considering how huge it has become. Also I think parents are being a little more vigilant as to what their children are up to on the internet nowadays as well. And of course the police have done a good job trapping them by posing as juveniles on the web.

It’s actually quite strange when you meet people who don’t have a Facebook profile. I actually saw someone the other day who looked completely dumbfounded when someone confessed, the look on their face was priceless, ‘You what?’ So where will it all end up, it’s hard to see anything really replacing it though something probably will  in this tech crazed world we live in. If I had one criticism I suppose it would be why change stuff that works well and confuse some of us in the process. If it ain’t broke then don’t Facebook fix it!

May 23, 2011 - Posted in News By: tonym

Tags: Facebook, Facebook fairytales, Friends reunited, My Space, Social networking