Wasting time on Facebook

Facebook is a giant time waster.

Which isn't to say I don't like it - oh trust me, I am totally sucked in. But wow - the time one could spend reading profiles, perusing friends of friends, searching for long-lost classmates, friends, lovers.

Seems as if one could - should - do something more productive.

This week, I've been inundated with stories about Facebook - on the radio today I heard the story about this meme 25 Random Things About Me; I've read other stories from
Time and Newsweek about how Facebook is for old people, and about how Facebook is sucking up all their free time.

True - all of it true.

Yet, I still love it. I am trying not to spend too much time on it - it's not as if I accomplish anything when I use it. I'm not in a competition as to who has the most friends (except with Gary - I tease him about being anti-social on Facebook, and he gloats because he was friended by a mutual friend of ours and I was not). I don't seek out everyone I ever knew in high school and college.

I have one friend who does seem to "collect" friends - I looked at her friend list one day and was stunned at some of the people she considers "friends." But in the time I've known her, she has always been about collecting things - why would "friends" be any different?

I have three friends in particular that are special. One is a former colleague, one a cousin, and one a friend from long ago that I'd lost touch with. For those three friends alone, this has all been worth it.

So I think I have reached Facebook Nirvana and it can't get any better. I'm not ready to quit, but I am ready to step back a bit. Let's hope it's not too late.