Are you on Facebook?

When you’re getting to know someone, the conversation will eventually get around to this question, and I don’t mean only among the kids.

I personally like the interaction and eavesdropping into the comments of my nieces and my friends.

In case you aren’t up on how it works, on Facebook you need to invite others to be your friend in order to communicate with them. So, because I am on Facebook and I have several friends, I get to learn when people get a new puppy and all those fun potty training details. I learn about high school sports and when practice is and how painful it was. I find out how-many-sleeps it is until friends and relatives leave for vacations I wish I was going on. And — drum roll please — I am up to date on how many moles have been captured and done away with in several yards. Where else could you get all this info on one page?

Another fun feature is the games that are available. I play ongoing games of Scrabble with my sister, a niece and a friend. Other games are available too but so far I’m not involved. However if they offer Bridge — well, I’d be there.

The reason this Facebook site is on my mind is that, for me, it seems to be a distraction from what I should be doing. I use my computer to write, and of course read and send emails, and I do research.

Then there’s keeping up on world news, and sometimes clicking on those ads on the side (like the dancing pigs that give restaurant coupons). And deleting those spam messages, and…well, you can see that going to the Facebook site would be a distraction from my everyday routine. But what’s a girl to do? I need to try to stay in tune with the world so I guess I’ll just add Facebook as part of the routine, and truth be told, it’s already there. I turn on the computer, get onto the Internet and first thing I do is see if it’s my turn on Scrabble, (I don’t want to let down my fellow players.), Then I check my homepage to see if there’s new news and then back to the Scrabble page and…

Wonder if there is a Facebook Anonymous meeting close to my house. Do you think I’ll need a sponsor?

Reach columnist Donna Lee Anderson at welltoldtales@aol.com.