A while ago, my sister started raving about a website. “Facebook” was its name. Then it was only available to people registered in certain colleges or universities. Now, however, its popularity has exploded, it is open to everyone, and it’s the new place to be on the internet. Or something, it’s not really that new.

Anyway, I’d always sworn I’d never get an account. I mocked such “social networking” sites. I’d prided myself on resisting the MySpace movement.

Then my sister made me a Facebook account. “OK,” I thought. “This can be just for family.” Then you receive friend requests, which are much harder to decline than you think. It’s almost impossible actually, when someone adds you that you know in person, declining their Facebook friend request seems an ultimate act of rudeness.

And so the flat plane becomes a slope, and the slope becomes slippery. Soon Facebook becomes not one of those social networking sites that any respectable person gives a wide berth to, but a website that you actually find yourself spending time on. Quite a lot of time, in fact.

One of my reasons for despising MySpace was the profile customisation. They coded it so godawfully badly that people have to use “Pimp my MySpace” or similar, with the result that most people’s MySpace profiles just aren’t viewable. However, you can’t customise your Facebook profile like this at all, meaning my main reason for hating such social networking sites is gone. No longer do you have to endure 10 videos all playing at once and the first 30 seconds of some profile song screwing over whatever you were listening to in the first place. Browsing Facebook can actually be enjoyable. Pages load quickly.

I don’t know what to say. Facebook is like Myspace, just with all the annoying bits taken out. I can’t find anything to actually hate about it, and that disconcerts me somewhat.