I've just recently gotten addicted to this. It seems there are new users (old friends) joining this everyday and I thought I was the late bloomer.

My brother-in-law has over 1100 friends. I think I can count the number of friends I have on the fingers of both hands.

We integrate FB with our sites whenever we can. From our log files it appears we get quite a bit of activity stemming from FB.

Mike, I don't have any friends at all on the fingers of both hands, but my fingers are awfully small.

My nieces convinced my wife and I to sign up. Can't say we're addicted, but it is a nice channel for keeping up with friends and family.

My wife is addicted. I suggested that I sign up too. That way we avoid personal contact altogether since we could communicate through facebook. :)

rofl@lawman. I thought that was what chat was for? lol

I tried avoiding it... just one more id to track on yet another sns. but admittedly, its the only one that keeps pulling me back with buddy requests etc. and only one that had real connections a bunch of ppl never would have dreamed of otherwise. so I give FB props for that.

and yah, integrated it as well.... and it also seems to be the most effective at generating traffic. prop again FB.
Daa*n u! (shakes fist in air)

I'm on facebook with privacy completely locked down. Kind of defeats the purpose of having an account!

I know someone who refused to accept his girlfriend in as a friend, caused massive arguments ! Over a year later its still a bone of contention.

@ Essex_boy: That someone wouldn't be Essex_boy would it? Haha!

My local newspaper recently printed that they had 220m members. Wonder where they got that from.

I like facebook - since having an account I've added a lot of people I knew at primary and secondary school, which is excellent. It rolls websites like MySpace, Friends Reunited and Twitter all into one!

Top stuff!

[edited by: Tom_Cash at 12:20 pm (utc) on Feb. 5, 2009]

I must be the only person on Earth that thinks Facebook is stupid. And I'm not even old.

I thought it was stupid until three nieces and a nephew convinced my wife and I to join and 'friend' them.

What I find about FB is that part of really knowing someone is knowing their day to day routine. Most of that doesn't rise to the level of an email or a phone call, but it's life happening and you're losing touch with those people. But then when they have little tidbits, you sort of know what's happening. So I probably wouldn't have known that my nephew had gotten interviews with Cisco and Google until long after the fact, but I did. I wouldn't have ever known that my niece was planning to spend New Year's Eve in Times Square. Some friends just split up and all their contact info was joint - phone, shared cell phone, shared email account - but they had their own FB pages so we could get in touch that way.

I've moved around a lot and have friends scattered across two continents and FB helps me keep up on what they're doing in a different way from email, phone or a letter on genuine dead trees.

At first I added some 'friends' just because they asked for my card and they sent a friend request. I don't use it that way anymore. If it's not someone I would keep in contact with otherwise, I ignore the friend request.

MySpace is too noisy (both literally with autoplay music and with the layout and everything). Twitter is ultimately pretty limited and I still just don't get it. But I've become a FB convert (though not an addict - haven't logged in for a few days).

ddogg, no your not the only one. FB is stupid, and actually quite dangerous, because it gives all the pople here the IMPRESSION that they are connected with friends, and this impression is actually counter-productive, it gets you further from people. Why? Simply because nothing can replace a call, a chat or a letter (email). But on FC you peep/voyeur on friends, and you BELIEVE your keeping in touch, whereas in reality, just because you're not witting, you're getting further and further.

My personal experience is that people are actually dropping off, at least the early adopters. And try closing your account there; it's hell. And all the data stays in their DB even after that. It's a huge privacy concern.

>>nothing can replace a call, a chat or a letter

Those forms of communication you mention are themselves pale substitutes for a face to face dinner. Which in no way replaces a three day hike or fishing trip together. So based on that can I say that the phone and email are stupid?

It's not like one social channel excludes another.

Granted, I don't see the point of having 500 friends on FB, but that's another story that has nothing to do with staying in touch.

Hugene, with all due respect, perhaps you're not using FB right. You can easily have the level of communication that you have via chat or letter on FB, it just enhances the experience. I can tell you that I keep in touch with friends all over the world with I would otherwise have no contact, thanks to FB.

What I'd like to know is how to make money on FB. I'm about to start a public-interest group there, but I'm not sure if it's going to do me much good, $$$-wise.

I enjoy Facebook as a way of connecting with family and friends. But I don't see a regular facebook account as a way to build or enhance a business. If you want to do that you need to build a "page" or start a "group". I did do a page for my major site. I update it now and then but not a lot of time goes into it. It's just another way for people to find the site. If you wanted to do more you need to start a group and really work at making it fun and interesting. I just don't have the time or inclination to do that now.

hmm, I wonder why did it get so much famous, was it advertising!

I think it got famous because it was innovative and timed right. The generation its aimed at is quite lonely and prefers quantity to quality of relationships.

Im ex-facebook, I used to like it until the page got redesigned and then all the clutter just got on my nerves. It has some uses for promoting local business and events.