I always figured I'd be the last person on Earth to wind-up on Facebook, having never really cared much for online social communities of this sort. However, after receiving an invitation to sign-up a few weeks back, I decided to give a go. It did afford me an opportunity to reconnect with some old online friends with whom I'd lost touch. So far, oddly enough, I haven't had much luck locating the distant family members and old "real-world" friends I'd sought out. Go figure.

For those who weren't aware, Facebook was originally created by two computer science majors at Havard as a way for students to keep in touch. And in the beginning, it was limited to just Havard students. Now, there are over 175 million members worldwide. Much to my 20 year-old niece's dismay, my brother-in-law is one of them.

I'm learning such feelings are not too uncommon among students. I was chatting with a friend a couple of weeks back, and asked her if she had a Facebook account.

"No, my kids have forbidden me from signing up," she replied.

Now that I think about it, it seems my niece has strongly urged her mother to stay the hell away from that web site, as well. Sooner or later, though, the compulsion will be too overwhelming to ignore, as everyone and their friggin' pets wind up there, eventually.

Not having kids myself, I'm assuming the big issue here is that kids are afraid their parents will be checking up on what they're up to online. I haven't even remotely considered the idea of adding my niece -- seemed a peculiar notion, quite frankly.

Students can always just reject a friend request from a parent, I guess. But then they'll have some serious explaining to do on the next visit home.

Yikes!