Facebook

Debbie has found a new way to spend time on her computer.

It's called FACEBOOK.

I've heard about My Space and Facebook for several years and swore that I would never join any social networks. After all the only thing people use them for is having affairs---right? The older I get the more I'm discovering that all of the things I say that I'll never do, I eventually do.

I am now an active member of Facebook.

It all started when I went up to the bay area to go to a women's bible conference with my friends. Audrey, my former teaching partner, said she was on Facebook and that if I joined it, it would be a really easy way for us to keep in touch. Since we have had difficulty keeping in touch, this was the least I could do for our friendship.

I opened an account, posted my information and sent a note off to Audrey. She was quite impressed with my speedy action in joining up and finding her on facebook.

Once you are on you can search for friends. So I began typing in names in the search bar. My brother and his wife were on, my friends from bible study were on, my friends from our bay area church were on, my in-laws were on and so on and so on and so on.

The next step is kind of scary. You have to ask people if they want to be your friends. Now, this isn't as intimidating as asking that question in person, but after you send the request, you're waiting to see if you will be accepted. Basically, it's kind of like high school. Only you don't have to face the person if they reject you and nobody else needs to know about it.

Thankfully everyone I've asked to date (I mean so far) has wanted to be friends---Thanks everyone!

Once you're friends you can view people's homepages. Now this is the fun part because they can post pictures and you can have little conversations with them. I might post something like....Debbie is tired from a long walk....someone may reply with....where did you go walking?....I might answer back....5 miles around the lake behind our house...and so it goes.

Now that's the snail mail way of conversation. If you get really hip---like my friend Deanne and I---you can chat real time. Since I have never been an instant messager, this is something I'm enjoying.

The last fun and surprising thing about facebook is that the program actually suggests people you might know and want to be friends with. For example...If I'm friends with my brother, John, the program randomly asks me if I want to be friends with any of his friends. So your friend group can grow quickly and you can find people that you may not have even thought of for years. For example, today one of my very first friends from Chico found me out of the blue and asked me to be friends. Which of course, I answered yes to.

Anyways, that's a little about my limited experience with facebook. If anyone wants to join, I'll be happy to be your friend!