Two Thirds Done

A good friend of mine who is one of the few people I hang with that is actually older than I am (and maybe even younger in heart) asked me about my attraction to Facebook. He wondered what it was about Facebook that a 70 year old (his age) could enjoy.  First of all, I can not say that I get more out of it at 62 than I would have if I was 26. But then again when I was 26, I was married, had a child and ran a small dept. at a medical school and probably would have had no time for Facebook (by the way, that very same child is one of my “friends” on Facebook along with my other two children). So what is it about Facebook that keep me going back daily.  Right now I am building my network.  I have written about this earlier.  I am trying not to be a Facebook slut.  I am sending out invitations to be friends to only people I really know and feel some connection to.  I do not accept invitations from people I do not know unless they can give me a good reason (like they are close friends of a close friend) and their have been only a very few of these.  I enjoy reconnecting to people that I have lost contact with.  I go through the lists of my friends and see their friends and how many of those are my friends too/ I wish I could visualize the network of connections (which is fundamental I think in the success).  The status function is great fun.  Some people are really good at putting up interesting things while others are rather boring I am afraid (like X….is at work).  Love to find out what people are reading or listening to or what movies they see.  Now that Facebook is open (open APIs) there are lots of really neat applications that I enjoy.  One “place’s that I have been” was actually sold to Trip Advisor for three million dollars.  I bet it was the work of one person.  Maybe Facebook is just like the CB Radio and will die out but somehow I think it will be around for a while as it is becoming a real platform.  And I should close by saying that the “cause” function where you can invite your friends to join a cause is a real winner. I have learned about a number of wonderful non profit organizations and have been able to make small donations easily.  Recently, Equal Access has been put up on Facebook as a both a group and a cause. This is an organization in which I am very active and I was the driver of creating a presence on Facebook.  This has made it very easy for me to introduce Equal Access to many of my friends who have joined this cause.I am a member of TBD which is more age appropriate but it does not have the energy of Facebook