Does FaceBook make you feel special?

Mark Zuckerberg, the FaceBook geek, was recently quoted as saying that he believes the success of Facebook is down to the fact that it makes "everyone feel as if they are special."

Really? Not in my experience. Don't get me wrong, social networking can be a great thing and if, like me, you have friends and family all over the world, it can be a great way of keeping in touch.

It doesn't make me feel special though. I sometimes feel like a total arse when I continually refer to myself in the third person in my status updates: "Weegie Khaleeji wishes everyone a Happy Christmas, Weegie Khaliji has just returned from Tesco, Weegie Khaleeji is eating a cheese sandwich". Purleez! I haven't spoke in the third person since I was about 4 and now here I am at 40 using it to record the minutae of my not so exciting life.

No, recording the consumption of every cheese sandwich does not make me feel particularly special at all, especially when I learn that Johanna is currently touring Australia and John is in Africa saving indigenous animals. No, Facebook has the tendency to make me look at the lives of others and compare it to my own. Mine never wins.

In my job, it can also leave you vulnerable, despite the fact that you have the power to invite and block people. Recently, an ex 'colleague' (I use the term loosely) caused both myself and others much distress when she 'invited' a couple of our current pupils to be friends with her. This meant that pupils we currently teach could see posts we had made on this colleague's wall. Luckily, there was nothing too controversial there but we felt we had been compromised, because even though we were able to control who we invited and what they saw we were still compromised due this person's complete lack of professionalism. I think it was then I realised why our school board does not encourage staff to join sites like Facebook.

Facebook, for me however, will be something I continue to use because it is addictive. I would argue with Zuckermen's reasons for this addiction though. I don't think any of us use Facebook because it makes us feel special, we use it because, ultimately, we are all just a bunch of nosey bastards.