It is Time to Face It

It is now one full week since I started this blog, and BettyBee is buzzing along nicely.  [Let me just take a moment to acknowledge here that, yes, given the blog name there may be some punny references to bees and buzzing and whatnot.  I will try to not be lame about it, but it is going to happen.  Let's just all hold hands and get over that now.]  In addition to setting up my blog last week, I also set up a page on Facebook.  It was a very "Generation Y" day for me.

Here is the thing about Facebook: I have had a few friends asking (hounding) me to get set up on Facebook for a while now.  "Great way to stay connected", "fun to find people that you haven't seen for a while", etc.  I resisted.  I am not exactly 18 any more (or 19, 21, 25 or 30 either).  Would I spend the time looking at it?  Would it be relevant to me?  What is the point?

The point?  Well, now that I have a Facebook page, I can tell you that the point is that Facebook is totally awesome.  I am addicted.  I am talking addiction rivaling my Starbucks addiction addicted.

For those of you who don't know (poor, deprived souls), here is how it works: you set up a page and post as much or as little information as you wish.  There are all sorts of settings so that you can determine the privacy level that you desire.  Then you go searching for friends via name, school, job, etc.  When you find those people, you send them an invitation and "friend" them. The friends on your list post things--personal statuses, comments on other people's statuses, pictures, etc.  

My favorite thing is the status updates.  I am not sure why I love them so much because, frankly, it is not really crucial information.  For example, as I write this blog entry, my Facebook status currently reads "B recommends that everyone check out Bill Maher's documentary 'Religulous'.  It is thought-provoking and hilarious."  OK.  That gives some information.  Another status for me this past week, though, read "B is getting ready to head out into the rain."  Status is just like that.  Sometimes you get kernels of wisdom, and sometimes you get mundane facts.  (I could have done the Forest Gump "life is like a box of chocolates . . ." analogy there, but I didn't. You're welcome.)  

I check my Facebook page every 15 minutes.  I am not kidding.  It is crazy.  Sometimes I will go as long as a few hours--but I can guarantee that during that time, I will have wanted to be checking it every 15 minutes.  The fact that I can access FB via my iPhone just feeds the addiction.  It is like a junkie living in a crack den.  The convenience of it is what kills you.  

The one problem for me is that it is not as if all of my friends are updating things at a rapid pace. Some people update and add things several times a day.  Some people seem to go the better part of a week without even logging on.  (How, I don't know.)  Maybe I just need more interesting or prolific friends.  (No, not really.  I love my friends.  How can I penalize them for having lives that prevent them from spending all of their time on FB?)

I am thinking of at least deleting the application from my iPhone, but I can't bring myself to do it.  I click on to FB and see that at 9:50 one morning a friend in San Francisco is drinking coffee, late on Saturday afternoon a friend in Portland is re-potting her geraniums and one night last week that another friend is making stuffed peppers.  How could I possibly live without this information? How did I live without this information just a week ago??!!  My life will now be split into pre-FB and after-FB.

Facebook, I just can't quit you.