I heart Facebook

Ok, so this is a little off topic, but I have been missing writing for a few days and I haven't really had any major news about the babies so I figured I might as well post about something else. And that something else is my obsession with Facebook.

I was an early adopter of these social networking sites and I have rolled with the trends as they evolved. In fact, I remember discovering the wonders of Prodigy at the tender age of 14 so I could talk long distance with my USY (Jewish youthgroup) boyfriend Cory Slutsky...cute kid, unfortunate name. Since then I have been an avid user of message boards, chat rooms, Friendster, Myspace and now Facebook. I even threw myself into Linked In, since Facebook and the like was blocked at work. Some social online networking is better than none.

I will admit, I was a little resistant at first to the whole Facebook idea. I had heard my college age cousins raving about it and I guess I figured I am too damn old to be trolling around cyberspace looking up old boyfriends and such. That was until I tried it. It is the online equivalent of crack.

At first it is a fairly overwhelming application and my head was literally spinning when I saw all the groups I could join (Six Degrees of Jewish Separation anyone?), virtual gifts I could send (pink frosted cupcakes!) and games I could play (I suck at Word Twist, but I adore it). It is the ultimate time waster and I find myself logging in at least 2 or 3 times a day. Best of all are the status updates. For the uninformed, this is a nifty little tool where you can write a pithy one liner about what you are doing RIGHT NOW. The key is to be clever and mysterious. You can tell a lot about people by their status updates. Anything too long, written in another language, or overly boastful sends a clear message that you are a choad. This is clearly an art form that I am trying desperately to master.

Finding old friends from college and high school and looking through their pictures is my idea of heaven. It is like getting the chance to walk around someone else's house and look at all their photographs without actually having to appear nosy. And there is just some little thrill that you get when you get one of those friend requests. It is like it taps some deep seated need to be liked, sort of like being sent a carnation on Valentine's Day in high school. Virtual validation all tied up neatly in a one line email: "Joe Blow added you as a friend on Facebook." Hooray!

There are of course some delicate rules of etiquette that I am still figuring out. For example, what do you do when someone you hated (or whose boyfriend you accidentally shagged) adds you as a friend? Can you decline? Ignore? What? And can people see that you looked at their profile like they could on Friendster? Oh the horror! I have stalked some unsavory figures that should have remained firmly in my past. And what happens when you start getting totally annoyed at all those notifications? No! I don't want your good karma vibes! Thank you very much.

All in all though, I am digging my time spent (ok, lost) on Facebook. It seems every day there is a new friend, picture, or status update to read. And if you think I am hooked now, can you imagine how bad it will be if/when I have to go on bed rest. I can see it now, my status update will read "Hannah is laying on an increasingly fat ass eating bonbons and watching 90210."