Monday, March 9, 2009

On Facebook.

I heart Facebook.

Case in point:

Sunny Sunday, strolling around at Eastern Market and bump into this girl I know but have never met before in real life.

She and I have been Facebook friends since last Summer when I was preparing to go to D.C. for round two and was searching Facebook for others going there for internships, anticipating how weird it was going to be, coming back to a place so familiar without all the familiar faces of my fellow students long gone to their home countries.

"This might come off weird, but don't I know you??"

Forty minutes and an accompanied flea market trip later I once again find myself in enthusiastic awe of the wonder of Facebook.

This is not the first time my social circle has been expanded by this magnificent invention. I have searched for housing, gotten to know prospective roommates, bonded with coworkers, arranged parties as well as reunions all over Europe and the U.S., all thanks to a random thought in Mark Zuckerberg's head.

So besides enabling me to quote texts from the bumber sticker application and a better grasp of geography, courtesy of the World Challenge application, Facebook has made a dramatic contribution to my social life and I will continue my unfunded (Mark, come on!!) lobbying for it.

My most recent convert was my roommate who finally signed up after five beers on Saturday night, astounded and enthralled the next morning, waking up to ten messages from long lost people now reacquainted.

There's a golden middle way to every thing, and Facebook of course is no exception. It's a problem when you can't get embarrasingly drunk on the town one night without having to think hard the next morning over whether or not anybody took horrible pictures, which will end up available for viewing by not just friends and family, but as Facebook expands, also coworkers and bosses.

Which brings me to the next issue, because how do you say no to befriending your work or family members on Facebook?

"Sorry Boss/Dad/person I met at a panel debate - I just don't feel comfortable letting you see the otherwise hilarious pictures from last Halloween when I was dressed as a dirty cop or the pictures from the time when my friends had me arrested for my birthday," just doesn't have the best ring to it. Neither does a simple click on the "ignore" button for the pending friend request. "Your friend will not be notified" but they'll probably notice anyway, when they can't access your profile or aren't allowed access to anything but your profile picture and work info, don't you think?

Facebooking with coworkers and bosses can also serve as a great way to bond with each other, connecting on a more personal level, ultimately increasing the level of fun at work, but can in gross cases come back to haunt you, making you regret ever signing up in the first place, as I am sure Jon Favraeu can testify to after a picture of Obama's 27-year-old speech writer grabbing a cardboard Hillary Clinton at a party made its way to Facebook, causing quite the outcry, though quickly removed from the site.

As with everything online Facebook should be used with caution. But use it we should, for all the good it can bring.

You can send a horrible email to the worst possible recipients in five seconds, you can have your identity stolen, and you can loose your job via an inappropriate picture someone put on Facebook.

You can also position yourself in front of the Capitol, screaming for the bringing back of typewriters, cash, and the abolition of camera phones, but we'd probably all be better off, learning to maneuvre in the electronic age, making all these crazy gadgets work for us and not against us.

I'll end the rant here. Gotta message my friend back about an upcoming reunion in D.C. brought on by the glorious wonder of Facebook.

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