Why I Love Facebook

I just finished reading The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick. It is a phenomenal book. In fact, it was a page turner for me.

Kirkpatrick provides readers an up-close and personal look into the mind and life of Facebook CEO/Founder Mark Zuckerberg, and provides a history of the most popular social network in the world and the second-most visited site on the internet.

I’m working on a pretty in-depth review of the book, which I will post here before week’s end. Please check back here for it or subscribe to my blog feed so you get it in an email. This book was great, and I will share many excerpts and highlights from it in my upcoming review.

But for now, the many reasons I love Facebook:

It is a platform that enables me to communicate and keep abreast of my friends’ and family’s lives.

It is an easy-to-use “life streaming” tool that enables me to document and “journal” with words, photos and videos important and special moments in my life, and to share these moments.

It allows me to manage and correspond with more people than I could ever maintain relationships with offline. (In short, it makes it more manageable and practical to have, and enjoy, many different friendships.)

Its technology (the “like button”, link-adding features, etc.) makes it super easy for me to share information, both that which is generated by me, but also, and more importantly, the many articles or photos or other types of content I stumble upon, on Facebook, or off Facebook (via the “Like” or Facebook share buttons) and wish to share with my Facebook friends.

It makes it easy to discover common interests among my friends, family and acquaintances that would be otherwise difficult, impossible, or impractical for me to discover.

It tells me when a friend or family member has a birthday. I love this feature. I can share Happy Birthday wishes with my friends and family, including relatives and colleagues. Without Facebook’s Birthday reminders, many of these birthdays would be oblivious to me.

By the same token, Facebook provides a platform that enables me to become aware when a friend or relative or colleague is going through a hard time, be it a death in the family, a lost job, an illness. And, I get to learn when exciting things happen, such as the birth of a child, or a successful adoption, or a job promotion or new home.

And, I have really enjoyed reconnecting with old classmates, colleagues and friends.

I live in Wyoming. Much of my beloved state is still considered “frontier” and not even rural. It’s lonely. There are only a half a million people here — fewer people than animals. And, the country is big and expansive. Facebook allows me to lead a pretty social life despite the fact I live in a pretty remote place.