For a few years now I had been hearing about Facebook, the social networking system based on geographic and school-based networks. I had always heard it contrasted with MySpace, the original networking system that now seems like the Wild Wild West.

Because of obvious privacy issues, I had been very wary of social networking sites. But as my children have grown older and wished to connect with their friends via this new technology, I’ve walked with them with my eyes wide open.

In our house, we have totally rejected MySpace as an option. It’s just too wide open, easy to fraud, and full of adult material inappropriate for teenagers. MySpace seems to work OK for musicians and film producers for getting their product sampled. However, content aside, the layouts and “skins” just seem really poor, with random sizes and most of the time, unreadable text. I think News Corp. bought a dog with that one.

On the other hand, Facebook allows multiple levels of privacy, making it your choice to allow your information to be seen to the whole world of Facebook, or just to your chosen friends. Because of this level of security, you find a strong collegial atmosphere with 99% of the posts on your “Wall” of a positive nature. If you want somebody to be your friend, you send a simple request which they can accept or reject.

There’s a multitude of applications you can play around with that let’s your personality come through. I’m fond of the movie quizzes, while other friends will role play as NBC’s Heroes, or send each other “flair,” as in T.G.I.Friday wait staff’s-cute-buttons “flair.”

But I’ve found the real power in Facebook is just the management of old and current friendships. The site helps you in remembering birthdays, inviting folks to events and to support causes important to you. My motivation to join Facebook was to keep a watchful eye on my boys’ online activity, meanwhile it has opened up connections to old friends in distant and not so distant places who I haven’t seen in 20 years. Again here’s the power: if I request a friend with someone who rather not deal with me, they can just hit the ‘Ignore” key and that’s that. But if they say “Okay” it opens you up to remembrances and reigniting conversations from long ago.

Facebook has humanized the Internet.

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