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Tess Allen

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Have you ever wanted to stalk someone without the risk of getting arrested? Have you ever had the urge to tell the world about your favourite lunch-meat, or what colour you like to paint your toenails, but never knew how to bring it up in a conversation? Have you ever dreamed of poking someone without actually touching them? Well, now you can do all of those things easily! How, might you be asking? Well, it's simple. All you have to do is sign up on Facebook, the immensely popular website that's taken the world's teens, (and occasionally its adults), by storm.

Before I plunge into a lively description of everyone's favourite website, I'd like to provide a little backup information for anyone interested in how Facebook came to be. It was originally created by a Harvard student by the name of Mark Zuckerberg. Eventually, he was joined by two other Harvard students, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. When the idea of Facebook was introduced to the other students at Harvard, they went wild. The rest is history. Today, Facebook is the second most popular social network on the internet, coming only after MySpace. Ever since Facebook's launch in February 2004, it's been recorded that more than 120 million people, both teens and adults, have Facebook accounts. Wow.

Facebook is the easiest and most convenient way to stalk all the people you always wanted to know everything about. This pastime has been appropriately dubbed "creeping." By simply clicking "Add Friend" on your desired stalkee's facebook page (and getting them to add you back!), you can find out what your friend was doing last Friday, what she likes to do in her spare time, and even what she likes to put on her popcorn! Though this might sound very, very disturbing to some of you adults reading this, it's a very common pastime for lots of teenagers. Naturally, we're just a curious generation. For some unknown reason, we really like to know about the people around us.

Despite popular belief among many parents whose teens use Facebook, the site is generally pretty safe. Many cautious parents tend to think that any creepy stalker can add their kids and hunt them down. This isn't true. The user can decide who adds them. If somebody they don't know tries to add them, they can decline, and that person won't be able access their account. That includes all their information and pictures. As long as you're safe on the site and only add the people you know, nothing bad can really happen. It's common sense.

Despite some of the easily avoidable and uncommon dangers of Facebook, it can actually be a lot of fun! Facebook provides teens with a way to put up the pictures from last night's party or their vacation to the Bahamas on display for all their friends to see! You can upload as many albums as you want. It's easy to do and fun!

Facebook is also a really convenient thing to have if you've lost touch with an old friend. With just the simple click of a button, you can get in touch with a long-lost friend who moved away when you were 10. A similar experience to this one happened to me a little while ago.

My first best friend, all the way back from pre-school, added me on Facebook a few months ago. It was so cool to get back in touch with him, considering we hadn't spoken in about 10 years. It was really awesome to see what he was up to these days, and to see how much he'd changed.

Facebook has a lot of other really cool applications and functions. You can tell people about yourself by filling out questionnaires and publishing them on the site for all your friends to see. You can virtually poke someone, hug them, or even give them a kiss! One of the most popular applications is Picnik, a tool you can use to photo-shop your pictures, which is always a fun pastime when you're really bored. Facebook isn't for everyone, but you'd be surprised by the amount of people you know who have an account of their own. Most teens are attracted to it because it allows easy contact with the people around you. It's free to use, and it's really fun, too.

As long as you're safe, Facebook can be a guaranteed way to chase away your boredom, and provide your afternoon with some distracting fun!

* Tess Allen, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Moncton High School, is Editor of the Whatever section.