Facebook started as a bastion for college students. Then in September of 2007 they opened it up to anyone with an email address. So I could have had a Facebook account almost two years ago. Yet I resisted. It seemed to be just another thing that I would need to do every day. Just as I had to check my email and respond every day, I would feel obligated to check Facebook and make comments every day.

A few months ago, stories started appearing talking about how baby boomers were flocking to Facebook. This certainly caught my attention. Yet, the straw that broke the camel's back was last month when I read that Pope Benedict XVI was now on Facebook.

So recently, I took the plunge. I signed up for Facebook. Signing up is easy and using Facebook is pretty straightforward. I asked a few people who I knew used Facebook to be my friends. I was amazed to get an immediate acceptance. That meant that they were online and were either on Facebook already or were constantly checking their email either on their computer or their cell phone.

The comments of my friends started immediately appearing on my Facebook home page. I was surprised that so many people had so much to say. Most of my friends were posting comments at least twice a day.

I decided to check out who else I knew that was already on Facebook. That process was completely automated. I simply gave Facebook permission to check my Outlook address book for possible matches. Within minutes Facebook presented me with 30 people that I already knew who had Facebook accounts. It sent an automated "Friend" invitation to all those that I chose from the list. That gave me 28 more friends.

I then went on to look for relatives who were on Facebook. My sister-in-law immediately responded positively to my invitation. I found  several of my nieces and nephews. I had heard that many of the twenty-somethings on Facebook were unhappy with their online bastion being infiltrated by mothers, aunts, and grandparents. Yet each of my youthful relatives accepted my invitation to be friends.

My efforts then went to finding old friends. What baby boomer wouldn't just love to find out what happened to certain people who they went to grammar school or high school with? I found a few and I also found out how addictive Facebook could be. I suddenly had an irresistible urge to reconnect with all of the people from my past.

On top of that, I found that some of my friends are doing impressive things like meeting the First Lady or going on missionary trips to Kenya. At the same time, some are happy to be tending their gardens, going out with friends, and attending the kid's soccer games. I realized that I have all kinds of friends in all walks of life. That is not only a bit of an eye-opener, but it makes me happy to be just where I am in life.

So now it was time to ask the Pope to be my friend. I was disappointed to find that he wasn't actually listed in the friends directory where I found only people using his name and likeness, not the real Pope. Instead the Pope has developed a Facebook application called Pope2You (www.pope2you.com) that lets you listen to the Pope's speeches and also lets you send "virtual postcards" with photos and messages from Pope Benedict XVI to Facebook friends.

So I guess the Pope is accessible on Facebook, but he won't actually be your Facebook friend. I, however, would be happy to be your friend on Facebook. You can find me at www.facebook.com/sandyberger. If you are not already on Facebook, you can use the link on that page to sign up. Facebook is an amazing application. No wonder it recently surpassed MySpace as the most popular social networking website. It's both addictive and fun! I encourage you to at least try it and see what it's all about.