Facebook is not the Enemy

I was at a "gathering" of parents last night; the conversation turned to Facebook. Now, I am a recent Facebook convert. I love it--I see so much communication potential there and besides, it is fun! Parents who have never been on Facebook think it is a cult. They were talking about getting requests from people inviting them to join Facebook and deleting them; then deleting those friends from their e-mail lists! One had the impression that if you joined Facebook, it would immediately contact your entire e-mail list and "start harrassing them". Not true, I explained, you have to physically do this, and people aren't invited to become your friends unless YOU invite them. And even then-they have to then AGREE to be your friends before you can see their profile and Wall. Untrue, they politely informed me, looking at me like I was crazy . Don't you know? You can get on Facebook and SPY on other people without them knowing! It is an invasion of privacy. FACEBOOK IS EVIL!!

Sigh. Now, what I will say is that through one of the lectures I heard given via the Flat Classroom Conference, Facebook is now taking over from MySpace as the most popular social networking site; predicted to happen by March. Texting and social networking messages are now taking over from e-mail; the 18-25 set doesn't e-mail anymore. More and more adults are getting Facebook accounts; once this happens in large numbers the youth will find some other form of communication! Facebook isn't evil. Facebook is just the new form of mass communication. Boy, is it ever effective. Much easier than typing everyone's e-mail address in if you are sending an e-mail to 25 people. Just set up a group! This isn't the future--this is the now.

Remember when we all thought--why in the world do we need an e-mail address? Now, do you know anybody that does NOT have e-mail? And do you look at them weird if they don't?

Facebook is NOT the enemy.