and what about Facebook?

And what about Facebook? I wish I knew. For a long time, I had put off joining it because at one time I had gone into MySpace. After getting requests from strangers to add me, I thought what the heck am I doing here, and deleted my profile. It kept me from joining Facebook also until--

My daughter-in-law talked about being in there and how it's cool. It seemed it had more purpose; so I joined, dragging Farm Boss along with me. Where I have experimented with chat rooms in the past and assorted other communication oriented groups, he hasn't had interest in any of it. Not to say he is that active on Facebook but he has reconnected with some high school friends. Maybe he'll do more with his account when he has more time.

For me it's mostly about posting photos of the family and occasionally, very occasionally writing something on my wall or commenting on what someone else has posted.

What I worry about with Facebook is their desire to connect the whole Internet, to be a big player on many levels. As a member there, someone who doesn't want everything personal being broadcast, I regularly check privacy settings, as well as read any warnings about it, to be sure permissions haven't been changed.

One idea was they'd link us there to other sites we visit online. We could opt out but we would have to opt out. I didn't like that even though I don't visit anywhere I'd be embarrassed to have others know. I don't like thinking they can track me and likely do even without the permission to post. Frankly, I wouldn't even want to read where my friends and family visit.

I also am not crazy about the groups they can form which can end up being hate groups like that one-- . [Facebook group praying for Obama's death]. I can see where it has value as a way for politicians to grow their base, put out their ideas, but are groups like that one accomplishing anything for anybody? Of course, I don't have to participate in them either but still... I guess there is still one praising the guy who flew his plane into the IRS building as a tax protest which killed innocent people. Can Facebook be a place to promote terrorism?

Other than read things that turn up on my Wall and sometimes click 'hide' to prevent seeing them again when they are game related, I have liked Facebook for connecting me to others in a different way. Because I limited my list to people I trust, I feel it's a safe place to share photos of my grandchildren of whom I am naturally very proud. Because I have my settings to only showing my photos to 'friends'-- not 'friends of friends', I feel I can do that without worrying about a pervert pulling them offline for nefarious purposes and that's only paranoia if it couldn't and doesn't happen. If Facebook ever stops protecting privacy there, I'll stop posting that kind of picture.

Facebook is fun for me to see what friends and family are doing, the latest book they read, something funny that happened, and any other tidbit they might want to share. I have seen it as a more intimate adjunct to the blog, like the next level because there I use my real name and anyone I have added does likewise.

Anyway if you are on Facebook, using your real name there, are a regular here, I would be happy to have you add me to your list (I use the email that is here at the blog). Please identify yourself, as to who you are either in your own blog or here, because I turn down people I don't know. Warning though, I won't be helpful on any game playing as I am working on a farm here, not there.