Trundling home on the District Line yesterday I picked up a free sheet and skimmed through its news offerings. Skipping the sports pages just in case there were any mentions of "Spurs", "Ramos" and "Relegation", I stumbled across a piece about Facebook and its addictive properties.

One in ten at risk from 'Facebook addiction'

was the headline. An expert from the priory said that: "at least one in ten Britons could be vulnerable to the addiction".

I chuckled and scoffed the rest of my journey home... had some supper... fired up the pute... kicked-off FB and debated with myself about whether 45 friends was really enough and whether 2 people I don't really know (but have seen across a crowded room) should be accepted as friends...

...come on in, there's room for more...

One of my mates has got 332 friends and admits he is a "friends whore".

3 months ago I thought "No to Blog" and "No to Facebook". 2 months ago I said "Probably to Blog, but definitely no to FB". A withering critique of anyone aged 30+ and using FB by Shane Watson in some lifestyley section of "The Grandad" actually propelled me into publicly announcing to my friends and work colleagues: "No way am I going to join this infantile trend. I've got real friends. I don't need to collect virtual ones. And I've got a private life. What could there possibly be to share?"...

...Okay, you've guessed it, I signed up to both and one good friend, who laughed at me when I mentioned blogging and "facing", has also signed up to FB! She said it was for research purposes. Funny that because I used the same excuse. Someone I knew was developing applications for FB (and making some money, don't ask me how) and I wanted to see what he was creating but to do that I had to join. There's the rub. Once you have joined you are at least partially committed. Who wants to be a mere question mark? Load up your photo, have a poke and away you go.

Incredibly distracting? Yes. Contributing to the expansion of human knowledge through seamless digital communication? The jury's out.

What I find strangely reassuring is that the only people who have asked me to be friends (and vice versa) are people I know in the real world. So what is the point? Fun, I suppose.

Bring it on...