Facebook IS Addictive

Paige was not messing around in her recent "Facebook is Addictive" post.

My client sent me a join invite on Saturday.

I joined that night then got panicked about having to talk to way too many people I didn't want to talk to and didn't bother creating a profile.

Then Tuesday after work, I found that a friend from Dalhousie had magically found me.

Intrigued, I joined. I went through an hour of feeling like an utter luddite, trying to figure out networks and groups and preferences. And I've been on a mad friend-collecting mission since that point. I found high school classmates I haven't seen in about a dozen years. I found girls from undergrad residence. I found team mates. I found coworkers. I found people to whose photos I just wanted to give dirty looks. It has been good.

I am outraged that I ever spent my time on MySpace. Quelle sham! Dave claims that it's better because it allows the hosting of music, but other than that, I'm just not seeing the appeal. The design is horrific, it's next to impossible to find anyone, and it just feels too... connected. I don't want to pick my eight favourite people anymore.

I am also lamed out by my participation in LinkedIn. Sure, it plays in the professional plane, but yeesh. Would it hurt you to include profile pictures? As much as I'm loathe to admit it, I have a hell of a time with names. (Evidence: I already keep forgetting the name of my beloved negotiations professor from two months ago.) Throw me a bone, already.

There's no doubt about it -- other than user-generated content, social networks are definitely the biggest story in the marketing world these days. I've been imagining the possibilities of the theoretical with all these silly proposals and papers, but now... there I am in the best I've seen and there's so much more. Sure, it's tougher to get in, but it's also easier to set the wildfire. This is the real viral deal.