10 things you didn't know about Facebook (including why your friends are addicted to it)

Is Facebook for you? No, seriously. You're probably thinking the social networking site Facebook.com is more for gabby teens and college students than busy adults, but it's surprisingly useful. And addictive. Here's why.

1. You can catch up with everyone, quickly
The way Facebook works is you sign up as a member and get a profile page. It's fully templated so all you have to do is plug in your info (don't include your address or phone number, obviously), load any photos you want to share and invite your real-life friends to be your online friends. Now you can post messages on each other's profile pages for everyone to read (i.e., "Woo-hoo! Kids will stay at grandma's! Can't wait to hit your Labour Day par-tay!"), or quickly send private messages back and forth, like e-mail. Use the Friends filter to find "Friends Online Now" so you can see who's available for near-instant messaging. For busy parents, Facebook is a fast and easy way to stay in contact with chums and pick up messages from a public computer.

2. You can find out what your grade-school best friend is up to
There are now millions of users worldwide. A whopping one-tenth of Canadians are Facebook users, and the site is growing in popularity everyday. It's a great way to get back in contact with old friends from high school, or beyond, in a nice but low-commitment way. All you have to do to search someone is type in their name. Because Facebook's growth has been phenomenal, it's not unusual to suddenly get an out-of-the-blue message or Friend Request from someone from your past within days of your signup. Don't feel like it'll be awkward contacting an old friend, it happens all the time, and it's not a big deal if you want to chat but not meet up -- Facebook is much less committal than telephoning someone out of the blue, for instance.

3. It's got a minimalist design that's not confusing
You'd feel silly on the customizable-to-the-moon (read: loud and confusing) MySpace. But Facebook has a to-the-point, streamlined interface designed originally for university students. That means every page looks the same, in an easy-to-navigate (and soft on the eyes) blue and white palette. You can focus on the actual tools you use, say, messaging, setting up meetings (you can easily start a work network), perusing photo albums or, heck, thinking of clever ways to update your Status bar. (That's the little blurb at the top of your page saying what you're up to, like, "Karen is...in a state of disbelief over the cost of one teenager's back-to-school wardrobe.").

4. It's addictively self-absorbing...which can be fun
If you're a mom, you're used to focusing on others. Facebook forces you to think about yourself. Your profile page includes your favourite movies, music, sayings, and you can also join or create clubs by interest. It's been a while since it's been you-you-you, so have fun filling out your profile, and editing it at your leisure.

5. Forget Googling, Stalkbooking is way more gratifying
But there's a darker side to all this strolling down memory lane. Ask anyone (teen or adult), and checking up on old flames and old rivals is one of the top Facebook activities. If social networking involves actually contacting people via Facebook, "Stalkbooking" is a 1 a.m. activity best done alone, early-onset midlife crisis optional. Through sheer numbers and self-edited detail, Facebook will give you status updates on more people than Google ever did. It's also much more deadly than Google because rather than oblique posts on baseball, you've got your object's vitals in front of you in gory detail. With photos. Facebooking can be a reminder of who you were, and whom you used to know, back when adulthood seemed so far away.

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