I recently joined Facebook. I have to say that in a short time I’ve been most impressed with their system. It’s by far one of the best social networks I’ve encountered…and I’ve encountered a bunch! It has a better security set up, a more meaningful network of contacts and friends setup and a more visually appealing layout to me. It’s been fun to find people I’ve known. It’s even more fun to try and figure out how some of us know each other or why we’d have ever sent an e-mail to each other! It took a few messages before one gal and I could pinpoint where we’d met and discovered it a was a shared interest group online. The crazy thing was a few weeks later she sent me a message asking if I knew or was related to a Blake Schwendiman. I wrote back that he was my better half. She responded with a small world connection that her mother had just sent her a link to an interesting article on his blog. How’s that for bizarre twists?

Well, this morning I got a new message from someone I recognized from my high school. We weren’t in the same class and honestly I didn’t know much more than a face and name but there was a message saying he’d added me to his friends. That was fun. It got me going on a small journey checking out the names and friends that some of my friends had on their list. I found a few other people I’ve known but not talked to in years so I sent them some messages too. Then things got interesting because I decided I’d go look for someone. I typed in the name of an old high school buddy, Mike Bond. Pages (and I mean pages) of profiles matching that name came up. Out of curiosity I typed in my own name - I was the only Holly Schwendiman. However, when I typed in my maiden name which I’ve always thought was a bit more unique (I mean, how many Mormon ‘Popes’ do you know? *snicker*) I was blown away with how many pages of matches came up. I almost sent a message to a few of them just to let them know they had a cool name, but I lost the guts (and time.)

Facebook is living proof of how small and large the world really is. It’s worth checking out. The Internet has sure brought about some fun changes for getting in touch with people!

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