Social Networking

I've had a Facebook for 2+ years. Initially, my daughter suggested that I get one as a quick way to communicate when she went away to college at Oberlin. At that time, it was a little more of an ordeal to sign up -- I needed to be associated with my university and get an email address from them. I joined somewhat reluctantly thinking I wouldn't really want to take the time to use the applications or fill out information about myself. That proved wrong!

I actually liked thinking about defining myself and what I like about Facebook is that I can control who sees my profile and how much they see. My daughter had a myspace briefly and I have navigated around myspace somewhat but it feels so exposed to me --it's an open site and I've always felt it had the potential to be predatory.

I look forward to checking my Facebook and I like playing with the different applications. You can be as active as you want to -- exchange messages with friends and write on their walls or just anonymously see what's happening in their lives. That sounds more like a stalker than it is.

I'm a friend of EPL's page, among others, and I like those associations and sharing the groups that I feel committed to with my friends. I do play a little too many mindjolt games but I have a healthy competition going with my younger daughter. I was worried that I'd have no friends but although I don't have the hundreds of friends that my daughters have, I have a decent number (and quite a few are my own age!). I was recently contacted my someone I worked with 25 years ago at the ADA, and that was so cool!

It hasn't turned out that she and I communicate primarily through Facebook, but it's a window on her life when she's away. I'll sign on and see that she's poked me and I know that she's thinking about me.