Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

If a seasoned journalist like Ben Kaufman can just now get around to writing about Digg, then I guess there is nothing to prevent me from discussing Facebook—which I finally just signed up for a few days ago.  I had avoided even thinking about Facebook, since I always found MySpace to be dredfully slow, ugly, and pointless.  But I must say I have been totally enthralled by Facebook, letting my life slip away while clicking on profiles, finding new “friends,” and leaving corny messages on other people’s walls.

Shortly after signing up, one of my first confirmed friends left me a simple message that pretty much summed up the whole thing:  “Welcome to Facebook, the biggest waste of time on the internet.”

But some interesting things have already happened.  On this morning, of the third day, I have 97 friends on my list.  That seems pretty good.  (Of course, I have no idea why I even care about the length of my friends list, since I’m sure no one gets a prize at the end of the day.)

I reconnected with an old student, and we have been discussing, in depth, the concept of “Deliberate Living,” which I have found intellectually refreshing.  So that’s a definite plus to my new Facebook experience, and I would not characterize it as a “waste of time.”

I engaged some small talk with people from high school I would otherwise never have communicated with, and that’s about it.  I haven’t gotten in deep enough to figure out all the various add-ons and options that I seem to see on other people’s profiles.  I’ll guess I’ll save that for a rainy morning when the family is asleep.

Thank you for reading (and printing from) The Cincinnati Beacon.