16 December 2008

Facelapped: An Introvert's Adventure on Facebook

Sometime this evening the red flag notification on the VOR's facebook account will probably have a double digit number on it; when this happens she will easily surpass, or facelap me (that is have a greater # of friends than me).  It took me six weeks to climb, in my own view, to an impressive 47 friends; it took her all of 48 hours to generate that number.  

I suppose being lapped by your significant other is the result one would normally expect when one member of the couple is an introvert and the other is an extrovert.  I suppose this is what happens when one member of the couple goes to a large public university and the other goes to a small private college.  I suppose this is what happens when one member of the couple is a clergyman and the other is not.  I suppose, no I know, this is what happens when you marry well!

Do not get me wrong I am proud of my 47 friends, I am still quite amazed at the number.  I am somewhat skeptical when I see some friends who have 300, 400, even 500 friends - do they really have that many friends or are they facebook harlots confirming and requesting anyone they can on God's green earth? 

***** 

The most surprising revelation of my facebook experiment is its (as one friend has called it) strangely addictive qualities.  I can not seem to drag myself off of the damn thing -- and it is not only me.  Tonight I watched the VOR confirm something like 20 friends in the kitchen while #3 was jumping in the sink and juggling the steak knives!  

*****

I have yet to figure out all of the applications -- I doubt I will, they seem all ad driven.  But it is a great interface for communication and sharing of ideas and general nonsense.  Perhaps the greatest function though is the gossip.  For someone who likes gossip, yes I am talking about myself, facebook is a godsend or more appropriately a devilsend.  

1 comment:

Henry said...

I found that Facebook is working out as a good replacement to e-mail (what with all that spam stuff). If you communicate with the Send Message maneuver, a trail of conversation remains (I guess if you use Gmail, it supposedly does the same thing).
Also, Facebook messages are inherently vetted by sender.