I’ve been told four times, by three different people, in the past two days to get a Facebook account.

For those of you who know what Facebook is, you’re probably shocked I don’t have one. But if you don’t know what Facebook is, let me briefly explain. Facebook is a social networking Web site. It was originally created for college students, but is now open to anyone. You can become friends with someone, leave messages for people on their pages and join groups together. It’s like being in high school, except on the internet.

MySpace (another social networking site) and Facebook reportedly have accounts for more that 85% of all high school and college students in the U.S. So I’m clearly in a minority.

I’m not quite sure why I’ve been so reluctant to get a Facebook account.

Some of it’s probably vanity. I’m a little scared no one will want to be my friend. And I’m not really sure how much of my life I want broadcast on the internet. Although I’m writing this, so go figure.

Some of its lack of motivation. I’ve gone this long without one, why get one now?

But I think the main reason is that I’m somewhat old-fashioned. Of all my friends, I’m the least technologically advanced. It famously took me 14 years to learn how to use our VCR to tape things. And then we got rid of the VCR.

But in all seriousness, I prefer face-to-face conversation than leaving a message on the internet for a friend, for everyone to see. I like human connection. I’m more apt to pick up a phone than I am to send an e-mail. And I think I’m one of the last four people in the world who still writes letters.

There’s just something about Facebook that seems so impersonal. It’s as if we’ve reduced human contact to five word fragments left on someone’s webpage. Yet, in a few weeks, I’ll cave. I’ll have an account on Facebook to keep track of all of my friends as we head around the country next year. I’ll still call them, to be sure. But it’ll be just one more way for us to stay in touch.

So where do you stand on the Facebook/ MySpace debate? Do you have one? Do you like it? Do you wish you never got it? Let me know.

P.S Thanks to everyone who’s commenting. It brightens my day to see people discussing my posts. If you have an idea for a post, leave it and I’ll try to work it in.