Week 8 #18 Networking Acquaintances into Friends

I've made the rounds of the social networking sites, read the Newsweek articles, especially the one where Facebook users revolted against the selling of info to advertisers (what were they thinking?,) and signed myself up for a Facebook account. Why Facebook? Because I want to keep up with my nieces and nephews and their My Space accounts gave me the creeps. The boys looked totally drugged out and the girls look like they are auditioning for a stripper pole. Facebook is much more sedate and allows me not to fear the worst. Not to mention the music - I've never muted pages so much in my life. Ning, LinkedIn, Xanga, etc. didn't have any one I knew on them, so what's the point? Yahoo!360 freaked me out since I already had an account with a message in it, and I never registered for it. I think it just came with my Yahoo e-mail. The speciality accounts for rooms, and dogs, and cats, etc., don't appeal at all, since I'm used to going directly to forums for questions and sites like HGTV to see how the big boys and girls decorate.

So I settled on Facebook, where I now have nine whole friends, one who I haven't seen since college, and five of my kin - who actually like Auntie enough to friend her back. I don't know how often I'll use my Facebook, since I'm maxing out my ability to leave windows open on the desktop without getting totally confused, but I'll check in from time to time, at least when I remember names of people I'd like to get reacquainted with. And I'll be keeping an eye on my kinfolk, of course!