I joined the 500 million member club called Facebook after delaying for a long time because it looked to me like another form of media to keep up with. When I was a kid, my family was late getting a color TV, so maybe there’s a pattern. However, my first week has been an adventure of learning how to use a new tool, connecting with far-flung people whom I know, and starting to use it for communication.

Overall, it feels like I’m at a virtual amusement park with a whirling social merry-go-round in the middle, the News Feed. When to jump off and on? The biggest surprise was finding out that my 80-something uncle from Centralville has a page. He listed me in the family category. I got a vintage Yardbirds music video clip from poet Joe Donahue. Corey Sciuto and I traded messages and did a little business. My son posted a doctored photo image on my Wall. I began adding content to my pages. Music was easy. Write the name of the performer, and a picture pops up. I discovered that my college-teaching brother in Virginia has a page—never would have guessed that. I easily reached the number for friends that is about average, according to FB statistics, about 130.

I learned from a few people that FB is old enough to have lost some people for various reasons: too time consuming, somewhat susceptible to hacking, and can lull users into letting their guards down regarding mail with infected attachments. So far, it’s like traveling to a new place. I’ll see how it goes.

That’s me with a bronze John Lennon in Liverpool in 2009.