Facebook Without Friends

If I don't see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I'll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me.
--- Tony Orlando, Tie A Yellow Ribbon
(Yeah, I know. I can't believe I quoted Tony Orlando either.)

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular. According to Fortune (June 11, 2007), Facebook has 24 million members and is adding 150,000 a day. Microsoft is guaranteeing to pay them a minimum of $100 million a year until 2011 in advertising revenue.

With all this going on, I joined last week. Facebook checked my address book (with my permission) and found all my contacts who were already members. All one of them.

This morning, my network doubled to two as a friend contacted me.

This afternoon, my first contact left Facebook, saying the experience is overwhelming. I'll ask him why. I'm guessing it's because he knows so many people on it. I've had a 50% drop in contacts.

Ten faces melt away until there's only one
And someone murmurs now, you must decide
--- Rupert Hine, Eleven Faces

So is Facebook of much use? It's hard to say without more contacts. I've looked up classmates from university and high school. None. I checked my contacts again and send out messages to a few friends who may be on Facebook or who may be willing to join. Out of 24 million users, there's got to be more than one who'll connect to me. Let's see what happens.