Facebooking...

I'm on Facebook. Finally enough invites, persuasion and recommendation pulled me in. You can access my profile here. I see it can be indeed a powerful tool if you want to invite people to an event or whatever.

In the last 45 hours or so since I created my profile, I've acquired 51 FRIENDS. So it seems that I too am in the race to be the first to acquire a BILLION FRIENDS. Wanna be my FRIEND?

Of course, the whole "friends" thing is a silly misnomer -- it's Facebook contacts, really -- but despite myself, I find my feelings being manipulated by the fuzzy connotations. Like, suddenly I'm so POPULAR. At least, we're tapping each other electronically on the shoulder, so to speak.

I'm surprised by all the people who are on it -- some whom I would never expect. Clearly, in North America at least, I'm a relatively late adopter.

Facebook's friend-finding software can be quite uncanny. An old friend's site -- a fellow in Toronto who I went to university with, who I still keep in touch with from time to time -- came up quite early on, under "Suggestions"... and I hadn't even listed my interests, educational background, nada. (Still haven't.) On the strength of a few events, my bio perhaps? Anyway, Facebook tells me, NOW we are FRIENDS.