Facebook takes off in Belgium
A little less than 2 years ago I was flooded with invitations to join Facebook, sent by some of my Canadian friends. I didn't really know what it was about but after a couple of ignored e-mails I gave in and created a profile. Within 48 hours I was connected with 68 former classmates. Wow, cool. Now I had a way to stay connected no matter how many any of us changed e-mail addresses with notifications that get lost etc.
I started looking for Belgian friends as well, but the "Belgian network" had about 60 people in it at that time!
I read on other people's how addictive Facebook was, but I didn't feel inclined to log on each day at all. Ok, it was cool to find old classmates again, but it's not that entertaining either. More and more I added applications, played games now and then and cluttered my profile with received flowers, quizzes, and other type of applications. So I had some cleaning up to do.
Over the last year now and then I found some Belgian friends (most of them active travellers or expats), some joined on my invitation so I could chuck them some books now and then.
But over the last months Facebook really really took off in Belgium. My Belgian connections started picking up last summer. Each time I look up some friends now I find new ones. Over the last 10 days I connected to 6 high school friends, 8 close relatives, 4 youth camp leaders, ... (some of them with the remark "ah good to see you, did the hype catch you as well?") and I noticed a lot of familiar co-worker profiles. Facebook was on the radio with stories of people creating succesfully a group to find their stolen van on Friday. Facebook was the topic of discussion at the student pub reunion because most people got invited by a Facebook event and got the communication this way (and the turn-out was big!). Facebook was the running joke at a house warming party I attended on Saturday where any remark got countered with "oh I'll answer that in my status on Facebook" "that picture definately needs to get posted on Facebook" etc etc... Most people seem sceptic about the use of Facebook, nevertheless they all have joined.
Quite funny, I wonder how long it'll last before everyone loses interest and the profiles become less and less active. And how many more people I'll find in the near future. I personally actually enjoy it more than I did over a year ago.
I started looking for Belgian friends as well, but the "Belgian network" had about 60 people in it at that time!
I read on other people's how addictive Facebook was, but I didn't feel inclined to log on each day at all. Ok, it was cool to find old classmates again, but it's not that entertaining either. More and more I added applications, played games now and then and cluttered my profile with received flowers, quizzes, and other type of applications. So I had some cleaning up to do.
Over the last year now and then I found some Belgian friends (most of them active travellers or expats), some joined on my invitation so I could chuck them some books now and then.
But over the last months Facebook really really took off in Belgium. My Belgian connections started picking up last summer. Each time I look up some friends now I find new ones. Over the last 10 days I connected to 6 high school friends, 8 close relatives, 4 youth camp leaders, ... (some of them with the remark "ah good to see you, did the hype catch you as well?") and I noticed a lot of familiar co-worker profiles. Facebook was on the radio with stories of people creating succesfully a group to find their stolen van on Friday. Facebook was the topic of discussion at the student pub reunion because most people got invited by a Facebook event and got the communication this way (and the turn-out was big!). Facebook was the running joke at a house warming party I attended on Saturday where any remark got countered with "oh I'll answer that in my status on Facebook" "that picture definately needs to get posted on Facebook" etc etc... Most people seem sceptic about the use of Facebook, nevertheless they all have joined.
Quite funny, I wonder how long it'll last before everyone loses interest and the profiles become less and less active. And how many more people I'll find in the near future. I personally actually enjoy it more than I did over a year ago.
.jpeg)
Comments
I love it!
But then I was on MySpace for a year before Facebook got me.