I am addicted to facebook. I would like to say that I am an avid user but I suspect that addiction is closer to the truth. I check my page for updates at least twenty times a day, usually via my phone and can be found online at some point most evenings.

And that is absolutely fine. It’s not something that I am ashamed of or feel the need to apologise for. It’s part of my life just like chatting to friends over coffee or a glass of wine.

I have blogged about my facebook use before. Since then, my friends list has grown although it is hardly prodigious. My friends range from people that I see every day to those that I barely know but who interest me. The best facebookers as far as I’m concerned either post unusual or thought provoking comments, make me laugh or most commonly both.

Because that is what facebook is all about to me – passing comment. Those people that have a friend list but never speak are shunning a great opportunity. When people say to me that facebook is all about reading the minutiae of someone else’s day, I believe that they are missing the point.

Of course, some postings are mundane and there’s nothing wrong with that but a good facebook friend will keep challenging me with their status updates. Ambiguous or seemingly random ideas keep me on my toes. People refer me to articles that I have not read, music that I have not heard and photos of things that I will never get to visit. Some people are brave enough to make political statements, others will confess their emotional state and some are so off the wall that I really have no idea what they on about. But if someone passes comment then someone else will too and suddenly a conversation springs up.

I don’t play any of the games and I’m not really a fan of much. I just use facebook to communicate. I could get out and actually talk to people but in my real and somewhat confined world I just don’t have access to as wide an array of interesting and entertaining people as I can get to virtually. To me it’s like going to a dinner party with different guests every night. I never know who is going to be there or what they might have to contribute to the discussion but whatever it is I am fascinated.

I wish that I had more people on my page that would put their head above the parapet and talk. They might say that they are too busy to waste precious moments in a virtual world but I think I would continue to make the time no matter how busy I was because I just can’t get that kind of diversity from anywhere else. And my life is all about diversity.