Four and Facebook

So, Facebook. Wow, what an amazing site. So much better than MySpace. I really don't like MySpace - I never really understood it. It just seemed like a race to sign up thousands of random people as your friends - who has room for thousands of random people in their lives anyway? I also didn't like the really crude and ugly look and feel of MySpace, and the way your thousands of random and insincere new friends fill up your page with "Hi, thanks for the add" or "Just stopping by to say you're hot" etc.

Facebook seems so much more natural somehow. For instance, my thousands (not really!) of Facebook friends are actual real people who I have actually met in real life, and have an actual real relationship with, or people who I may not have actually met, but with whom I have been in real actual corespondace via email and blogs.

The site feels nice and relaxed, with logical layout for the pages, and a simple refreshing colour scheme. It allows communication and tasteful customisation, you can share photos and other media, you can set privacy levels, and you can set up groups for people to join. I am a member of several, including "I go out of my way to step on a particularly crunchy leaf", but do you know the most useful feature to me so far? The birthday reminders. I have wished so many people a Happy Birthday because Facebook reminds me - it's great!

So if you're on Facebook, and we haven't made contact yet, look me up. I'm the only Mark Jaffrey there.

Here's a cartoon from Dave about a possible downside of Facebook, but this has been the criticism of the internet since the beginning...

Cartoon by Dave Walker