When I started using Facebook, it was because of the attraction of a cool new platform towards a geek. After being on it for quite some time, I’m actually pretty happy that I signup so long ago. Initial use of course centered around adding current friends, colleagues and family members. As time passed, I change jobs and realized that Facebook allowed me to keep in touch with most of them and I was happy. Of course, the average Joe can still say well, there’s email and cell phones - you don’t need Facebook to keep in touch. Quite true. And that’s why I didn’t say I was ecstatic because I used Facebook, certainly the other channels of communication negated the benefits of Facebook.

No, feeling ecstatic came a few weeks later when a childhood friend whom I’ve had lost contact for a decade or so got in touch with me again via Facebook. I forgot whether it was me that found him or the other way around (but I remember searching for him and coming up with nil when I first joined Facebook). This ex-school mate of mine, Aqrehan, earlier found me when I signed up for a loan in a bank he then worked in but being the air-head that I am, I lost his cell phone number. Boy was I pissed off with myself. I’ve now got in touch with yet another ex-schoolmate through him. That makes 2 of the gang (there were 3 close buddies in the gang).

Today, again, through AQ, I found Dina through his Facebook contact. It is days like this that I get reminded that technology, as great as it is, takes a back seat to on of its purpose - bringing people closer. Without a platform like Facebook, these friends would only be memories, forever cherished yes, but never again to be seen.

Today, I’m a happy guy that my old friends are no longer just memories. Now excuse me while I go through their pictures.