The Final Frontier: Facebook

by Jenelle Landgraf

I tried to avoid joining Facebook for a long time. My friends and family constantly told me that I need to be on Facebook so I can know what's going on with everyone and get in touch with long lost friends. I was just fine calling my friends on the phone to catch up or sending good old-fashioned emails.

After awhile I started feeling like I was the last person to find things out because everyone posted their updates on Facebook. For example, when my dear friend Angela (aka Mapel's top model) got to interview Tori Spelling down in LA, I didn't hear about it for awhile. My girlfriends were talking about it and I was like "What? When was this? I didn't know Ang got to interview Tori, my old BFF from 90210". Well she posted it on Facebook....yeah, didn't you see her update on Facebook?.....I read about it on Facebook, didn't you?.......

Fine - this week I decided to join Facebook. I was so not excited about joining that I asked my husband to fill out my profile so i wouldn't have to move from my comfy spot on the couch. I was a little more interested when it came to choosing my profile picture. Decisions decisions - should it be a group photo, a couples shot, a close-up of my face, or a full-body shot? I ended up decidng on the one to the right.

After posting, I wondered if it looked too posed? Or if that's really the best lighting and position for my features? Or if I shouldn't have cropped Jaime and Allison out it? And, whatever happened to that photography company that was so popular in junior high - Glamour Shots ? Maybe I should get my profile picture taken there and then my hair would look nice and fluffy and my makeup would be nice and dark, and they could sort of blur the photo so I look sexy and not at all like myself.....hmmm, something to think about.....

My first day on Facebook was a little lonely - I only had 2 friends and nothing on my wall, and I wasn't even really sure what a wall was or what should be on it. My sisters and husband quickly rescued me by requesting that all their friends add me as their friends. In a matter of 24-hours, I had 86 new friends. Wow - I don't think I've ever had that many "friends" in my life. And I found so many cute pictures like the one below. Facebook was already doing amazing things for my social life, but there was more to come...

Now that I had all these "friends", I decided I should start communicating with them. My first mistake was that I didn't fully understand how Facebook communications works. I posted a note on my sister Jillian's wall, thinking she and her friends would be the only ones who could see it. I wrote something about Baby L, even though I had only had a chance to tell my closest friends and family about my pregnancy so far. To my surprise, I started getting lots of "congratulations" messages on my wall and my cell phone. I wondered how everyone knew that I was pregnant, and then someone informed me that when I post something on someone else's wall, all my "friends" can see that I've posted a message on someone's wall and what it says. Okay, got it.

Once I figured out how to properly use Facebook, I found that I couldn't get enough of it. On Monday I probably spent more time thinking about Facebook than anything else (don't tell my boss - she's a real firecracker). This was more addicting than crack - not that I would know - it's been a few years since I've done apple jacks (kidding. I actually had to google "slang for crack" to find that one). Before joining Facebook, I didn't really understand how people could find it so entertaining. But now my eyes were opened to new and fascinating things - for example, I learned that this guy I was "sort of" friends with in high school was on his way to buy eggs at 4:53pm on Tuesday. Wow - I had always wondered if he was an egg-eater, but now I know for sure. Oh, and another "friend" had just finished painting her nails at 11:34pm on Wed - I thought FOR SURE she was someone who went to bed early. It's a good thing I joined Facebook or I wouldn't know what a crazy cat that girl can be.

I have now been a member of Facebook for about 5 days and I still have some questions about proper etiquette. I'd like to start posting more photos and some videos, but not sure if I have to get my friends and family's approval first. I have this adorable video of my friend Allison learning to swim at the villa in Italy a few months ago. I'm sure that everyone would love this video, including Allison. So, I'm checking with her first. I checked and it's a go. So here it is...