Why Facebook Is Awesome

Recently I’ve been using Facebook a lot more than usual, in order to:

• Reconnect with old friends
• Arrange ‘real world’ meetups
• Plug gaps in my network that I should have filled ages ago
• Build a page for Digital Cortex (right here!)
• Organise my contacts into groups
• Do a bit of peer-analysis (spying)
• Try some FB apps and tools for work

Now that I’ve got all of my contacts sorted, I thought I’d try one of those friend wheels, just out of interest. I chose the one with most users, which is called Nexus, and I’ve gotta tell you – it is seriously good!

Nexus creates a interactive image of your friends’ interrelations, their shared interests, and their profile information. It is really powerful, takes about four minutes, and it’s results are guaranteed if not to please, then at least to look cool.

Here’s my Nexus analysis, with some text roughly labelling my groups:

If, like me, you use Facebook as a life-management tool, you may find it interesting to see your whole network presented in this way.

I was surprised at how this complex display of some 460 connections made me really nostalgic (soppy, I know) and has driven me to reconnect with people I haven’t thought about in ages. Seeing everyone like this revealed that this is basically who I am: a series of connections. So you could say, this friend wheel has reaffirmed me as a human! Who thought Facebook could be so deep?!

Where do you fit in to the wheel? Let me know if you recognise yourself amongst the connections. I’d love to know!

P.S:

Inspired by all this, I’m adding a new icon to Subscription Options, my WordPress Plugin, in the next release.
It will allow bloggers to create subscribers to a Facebook page.
Try it by clicking this icon, and subscribing to Digital Cortex.