Face to face with facebook

I wasn't sure of what it was, until someone sent a link to her profile because she had a photo album there that she wanted me to see. I don't think that facebook hosts the pictures, but that was the link that I got, so, I dared to enter my name and email, and created an account, checked the pictures, and logged out. "I don't understand why 70% of the college students use this thing daily." I thought. It is so popular that even my students have asked me about my facebook thing.

Facebook is freaking scary. Do you remember friendster a few years ago? The social network where you could connect with your friends online, exchange messages, and pictures, and so on? Well, it is pretty much the same thing, but limited to your college.

A few days later, I decided to look someone up (I was trying to match the name to a face; yes, I have a horrible memory like that), so I logged in again. In the profiles, there are pictures of their friends, and I recognized a friend of this person. Very quickly this expanded into many diverging paths of [friends of]^n that grew driven by my recently discovered voyeurism. At one point I was able to find my exgirlfriend's boyfriend's profile, and that is when I realized that this was out of control.

What the hell what was happening to me? In 30 minutes I learned way too much information about too many people. It was addictive, too addictive. And I know a lot of people that check this thing daily. DAILY. I don't want to get addicted like that. So, I deactivated my account before it was too late.

I came face to face with Facebook, and it was scary. I think I'm out for good. I hope.