The new 'face' of the Herald

I became a member of the Facebook nation during my senior year at Manhattanville College in 2005. In those days, Facebook created and opened a network for only a few select colleges. Oh, what a happy day it was when Facebook created the Manhattanville College network. I had already created a MySpace account and was hesitant to join another social networking site. But at the behest of many of my classmates, I too jumped on the bandwagon.

Today, four years later, anyone and her mother can log on and join. Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, bosses and sometimes even Grandma and the family dog are signing up to create profiles in droves. I’m friends not only with people I went to school or worked with, but also my cousins in Italy, my aunts and my best friend’s mother. I’ve heard many moans and groans from users, especially teenagers, who are angry that their dad keeps sending them friend requests and are unsure how to approach requests sent from their bosses.

Facebook has connected people throughout the world with one another, and the Herald is no exception.

As your news outlet, the influx of people joining the social networking site is proving to be a fantastic source. It has given us the opportunity to connect with readers near and far. We created a Long Beach Herald profile in May, and we now have 247 friends, with requests trickling in every day.

By using the “What’s on your mind” box, we ask our friends their thoughts about a particular issue, or if they would like to be interviewed for a story. Maybe you’ve answered one of these questions and we featured you or someone you know in an article.

Recently, we asked our friends if they knew anyone who moved away from Long Beach, and we were shocked to learn that many of our Facebook followers were actually Long Beach natives who have moved to other parts of the country, including Missouri, Florida, Maryland, the Carolinas and upstate New York. Without Facebook, getting in touch with these sources, which we used for my front page story “Longing for Long Beach” in the Aug. 27-Sept. 2 issue, would have been much more difficult. In fact, the suggestion for the story came from one of our far-away Facebook friends.