Facebook

Little over month ago I promised I might write about this.

Beginnings
I have been an Facebook user for six, eight weeks now. I don't really remember why I originally joined; probably it was just a moment's fancy. I did comment on MySpace. And, in case you happen to have forgotten, I disliked it immensely. So maybe I wanted to do similar piece on Facebook; this is entirely inside the realm of possibility.

I did get an invite months ago, but as it ended up being one of those accidentally sent ones - Facebook asks if it can sent an invite to everyone on your address book - I didn't join and even complained to the sender that you shouldn't allow companies to endorse their products on your name. And if you believe in a product, you should believe in the product enough to write your own endorsement, invitation... and not just use the default one.
Never trust an default invite. It's probably fake or accidentally sent. If you ever find one from me, I didn't send it voluntarily. But I digress.

Background
The first thing I learned about Facebook, nearly a year ago was this; in Iraq, the privates use MySpace... and the officers Facebook. In civilian life, MySpace is used by the young, the alternative crowd.. in other words, people who value experimentation, "their own terms" over standards or "the way found best". I don't particularly like this definition, as it leaves me in the non-alternative crowd - a demographic I'd rather not belong to.
Where MySpace is known for its individuality, customization - with very poor tools, as mentioned - Facebook in turn believes in standards. MySpace has flashy colours; Facebook has some blue on white. MySpace handles the whole page as a single entity; Facebook uses java to arrange the information and layout (inside assigned grid, with limitations) so whatever you do with your profile, it looks at least semi-professional. And while Facebook doesn't allow you to change your background colour, add music or bling.. what it does allow to do is far easier to do than anything on MySpace. All in all, I would say the difference is that of the personal homepages of last century to a profile on a company page - this is not a perfect analogue, but gets pretty close.

What is it good for?
There are several ways to handle your profile, I suppose. I hear that many IT-professionals use it to create contact networks for viral advertising and job prospects, some use it to play some sort of minigames with each other (I saw rock-paper-scissors in one profile).. I mainly use it to stay in contact with my friends, keep track of interesting events and so on.
On longer term, it's also excellent for contact information. You can enter your contact names, phone numbers, home addresses.. and then limit who will see it. Therefore, I can allow my "true friends" to see all the above information, but my "friendsters" only one email and instant messenger-id. The rest will have to be satisfied to my name, mugshot and location.
It's very handy if you happen to need to send a postcard, lose your phone or format your computer... or need a reminder when the birthdays are coming up (I, at least, can never remember those). But daily? I see what my friends are up to, share photos I have taken and paste recommended pages to other profiles. Small things that say that I remember you, you are still my friend even if we haven't met lately due to distance or time constraints.

In the end
But all in all, I find Facebook to answer a need I didn't know I had (aren't the best innovations like that, really?). I have used several networking sites (starting with IRC-Galleria and MySpace) and they often work only vanity-pages - look at my face! Look where I am! Facebook (while nodding to the mentioned things) has the focus on actually contacting other people and keeping touch.

It does what MySpace does, in the same way as business suits and jogging clothes are both basically there to keep you from being naked - but there is a difference, now isn't there?