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Jason English
The _floss on Facebook
by Jason English - June 7, 2007 - 6:30 AM

Last week, I became the 25,000,000th person to join Facebook (give or take). I’m slowly stockpiling friends, co-workers and former classmates. Photos have been posted. I’ve agonized over my list of favorite TV shows. And I realize none of this passes for interesting.

So I searched “mental floss,” thinking perhaps we had a page and I’d missed a memo. I was happy to find a semi-thriving Facebook Group: I Read Mental Floss (you must have a Facebook profile to view this page.) But this was not an inside job. I believe it’s the brainchild of superfan Lindsay Lowe. Very cool.

facebookfloss.jpg

And if you think we’d make fast virtual friends, I’m open to invitations. Oh, and there is a fully functioning mental_floss MySpace community. Now we just need to set up shop on Dogster.

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Comments (8)

  1. What’s the point of facebook — isn’t it just a retread of myspace? Too many dang social networking sites out there. Harrumph.

    posted by Ransom on 6-7-2007 at 9:53 am

  2. I read a great analogy yesterday — Facebook is Apple to MySpace’s Microsoft.

    posted by Jason on 6-7-2007 at 9:59 am

  3. What I used to think was that Facebook was for college kids – literally, it was a yearbook that was applicable across schools. An interyearbook rather than an intrayearbook, if you will. But I don’t know if that’s the case now, if it ever was.

    posted by Dan on 6-7-2007 at 10:19 am

  4. Facebook verifies identities so everyone is using their real names. MySpace allows virtual identities.

    It is real vs pseudonym. I think the Internet’s social networks would be better off overall if everyone did not hide behind fake identities (says the man posting behind a pseudonym).

    When I post on Facebook, I do feel a little more exposed, but I still prefer it.

    posted by n2y2 on 6-7-2007 at 10:35 am

  5. You don’t have to use your real name – there are plenty of people out there masquerading as imaginary figureheads. I don’t know how it is now, but when I signed up for it two years ago, you just had to have a valid university email. Now since they have high school kids and other people on, you probably just have to have a valid email address of any kind. However, it’s nice because only people who are my friends or are in my network (so either my school or my region or workplace) can see my profile. And it’s also nice because I can even further restrict my profile from being viewed from whoever I want.

    posted by Lindsay D on 6-7-2007 at 10:50 am

  6. As just about every college kid, I am a facebook addict. Its so much better than MySpace… it started out quite a bit different, but has now become more similar to MySpace with it opening to people outside of college kids. Its easier to navigate and to control. Oh, Jason, I friended you…

    posted by Amy on 6-7-2007 at 2:01 pm

  7. I must say, I had never searched Facebook to see if there was a mental floss group, but now I’ve joined =)

    To the question about Facebook verifying: It doesn’t really anymore, but to join a college network you still have to have a college email. However you can just join a regional network, or, for high school students, a high school network. No verifiable email required for those.

    posted by Samantha on 6-7-2007 at 3:23 pm

  8. Love Facebook. It’s more interactive than My Space. I like the analogy above from a pp– Facebook:Apple, MySpace:Microsoft. MySpace allows for “blogging” and to share photos with friends, but Facebook has countless fan clubs, word games (HELLO I’m addicted to Word Twist), movie quizzes, etc etc. And there seem to be fewer teenyboppers on Facebook, which is clearly a plus.

    posted by Cassandra on 6-21-2008 at 11:00 pm

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