Facebook, blogging and other addictions

I just got sucked into Facebook. (Wish I had a visual for that one.) No worries, I say sucked in with love.

I realize I'm light years behind the rest of the world when it comes to all things facebookish, but I think I've more than made up for it during this first week as a facebookee. I posted a photo, filled out the questionnaires and reached out to those near and dear. Now what? Is there an art to facebooking?

I spent countless hours reuniting with old high school and college friends, and even family members over the last five days. I must admit it's a bit strange witnessing my professional and personal worlds colliding. But it's great to catch up and get a peek into their lives (well as much as they are willing to show) and see what they've been up to. Where did the time go? Anyway, I digress. It's amazing how much a web page with pictures of associates can tell you about a person. That six degrees of separation thing is no joke. And then there's the mindless babbling: Such and so is....you fill in the blank. It's all the rage now to inform everyone of where you are or what you are thinking at that precise moment even if there is no real merit to it. (Guilty as charged.)

Facebook deliberately keeps track of how many people have accepted my invitation. Some people have over 600 contacts. For one moment, it's high school all over again. I am nostalgic. Visions of trying out for the cheerleading team, running for homecoming queen, and hanging out with the cool kids--all of the anxiety derived from these activities, that rely so heavily on popularity, came back like a rush. There's got to be more to it than this.

One of my Facebook friends recently asked on his page:

"Do I win a prize for having 500 fb friends?"

(He didn't say it exactly that way; I paraphrase to make the point.)

It's not the quantity but quality of friends one of his fb friends replies.

God at this point in our lives, I hope we never forget that.