Facebook Experiences:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

So, I just created a Facebook account yesterday. I made a Myspace account back when that place grew to a critical enough mass of users that I thought I'd have a decent odds of running into some friends, but I never really use it.

I don't really care for all the loud-ass embedded death metal music in half the profiles and the overall trashiness that characterizes much of Myspace.

When Facebook was first created, my understanding was that it was specifically for college students and that you were supposed to be enrolled somewhere to even set up an account. (Perhaps I am wrong about that but I seem to remember this.) Anyway I suppose that they have since realized that there's a lot more money in opening the doors to everyone.

So I have a few friends now, my wife and a couple of high school classmates and a an old lab partner from professional school.

Where I went to professional school was about 10 percent Mormon, and my lab parter was one, married, with a kid, but he clearly didn't seem to "fit the mold" of the Mormon contingent at our school in that he seemed to have fairly liberal political views. I remember some very unpleasant lunch periods where one or two of the self-appointed leaders of the schools LDS Mafia were attempting to enforce political orthodoxy at the lunch table in a very unpleasant way (I've learned that the main ringleader of this group subsequently wound up ditching his wife and running around the country doing anything he could to avoid paying alimony).

So, from seeing my old lab partner's Facebook page, I have learned that he's out of the closet and married to a dude, and very happy. Their facebook profiles both have pics of each of them standing with our new president! I'm guessing from the state they live in, and the role it played in our election, that they each must have probably had dinner with Barack several times, LOL.

So we posted messages back and forth. I told him I was happy that he was doing so well and that things had worked out so well for him.

So far I'm impressed with the networking aspect of Facebook. It seems more orderly and less chaotic than Myspace, although maybe more boring if you're a teenager. I see about a third of my college class on there right off the bat. I guess that's why the Facebook founder wound up working on the Obama campaign.

Anyone have interesting experiences with this?

[Left Is Write]

1. I've had several great experiences re-bonding with people I was once close to -

and staying actively in touch with people I'm still close to (emotionally) but far from physically.

And I like playing games. I vastly prefer Facebook to MySpace, though I still maintain my MySpace account.

[GoneOffShore]

2. We're loving Facebook!

Mrs GoS and I each have accounts and a page for our business. It's a great tool and much more interactive than Linked In - which is so buttoned up that it feels like a strait jacket.