Facebook ...

... t's the new water cooler. And every day, I spot another friend there. Today I added about three "friends" from among people I know from the family or from work, and in addition, I found a Facebook group for the 23 Things summit I'm attending tomorrow.

Facebook is nice, because there are pictures there, a few games and silly "gifts", and also the ability to chat in real time if you happen to be online at the same time as some of your friends. Like e-mail on steroids. It's a great way to share photos and have conversations with friends and family, no matter where they live! Despite the social aspect, whereby all your "friends" can see all your posts to everyone - and theirs to you - it is still possible to have private conversations via messaging.

Most of the co-workers I see every day are on Facebook, as are the children of most of my friends. (Daughter, however, stands by her MySpace account.) My friends and family are getting accounts, one by one, as a way to keep in touch with their kids when the kids leave home, and as a way to seek out former co-workers, classmates, family and friends, and also as a way to contact others in the same line of work or with the same interests.

Facebook nullifies the limitations of distance, and makes it easier to find people in an age when many have given up their land-line phones in favor of cell phones, which have no centralized directory. And if you don't want to be found, just don't accept the friendship request.