Reconnecting with an old friend on Facebook is not such a big deal for teenagers and lots of working class individuals but for lots of people over fifty like my mom , the world of web2.0 can be simply intimidating. Putting their information on the web for the whole world to see isn't a very comforting thought for this age group. Most of the people in this age range prefer to do things the old fashioned way and I don't blame them. With the ease with which hackers get access to the information online, it does give me cause to pause sometime when I see a new trend developing such as the world of social networking via the world of Web2.0. Thankfully, I am of a more recent generation so I also know the good of the internet so while i do pause to think in embracing the new trends, I do my research - (and yes the internet is the best research ground ever) and when the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages I don't hesitate. Such was my experience with the new social networking trend via the world of Facebook, myspace, ning and the rest of web2.0.

With so many options out there and my email overflowing with friendly invitations, I had to think long and hard in choosing one. Finally I decided on Facebook and joined just 2 short weeks ago. Since joining I've found over fifty of long lost friend ranging from my elementary school days to my college days. Some I haven't seen in as little as 7 years and some for even longer and for me it was rather exciting reuniting with old friends but the tip of the iceberg for me was when i found the daughter of my mom's long lost friend on the world of Facebook. To give you a background on the story, my mom and her friend lived together in the seventies and over the years, they both have relocated. My mom's friend was married to a diplomat so the family got to relocate quite a bit across different countries which made it difficult keeping up with them. But moms friend was such a nice woman, anytime she was back in the home country (Nigeria) she did her best to contact my family and it always was fun reuniting with her and her family though most time is was always for a short while and only over the phone. Yet she always had a present for us children and being the eldest of my moms children I remembered her quite a bit especially since she was the only one ever to call me by my second name. Though I can count the number of times I've actually seen her yet each time even if I couldn't remember the face all i needed to hear was her speaking and calling that name and I remembered who she was. In the mid eighties, she and her family had stayed in Nigeria a little longer than they had in prior years and this was the first chance I got to get to know this woman and for my mom it was a good time of catching up with her friend since the days when they had lived together. It was therefore very sad for us all when after 1988 her family left the Nigeria yet again and we could not get information on their whereabouts. While my mom tried her old fashioned way of asking around without much success, I from the time I learned to use it in the late nineties turned to the world of the worldwide web but year after year using different leads both from my mom's research and mine, I came up with naught until Facebook surfaced.

I didn't go on Facebook just for this research I went on Facebook to find my old friends but as I begun to find even friends from my chidhood, even though I'd almost given up hope, I decided yet again to have one last try at finding moms old friend. All I had to go by was the last name and since i remembered the first names of the children i thought somebody would certainly come up and it did one of the daughters of moms' friend surfaced on Facebook. I didn't recognize her since she was grown from the last time I saw her but one of the advantages of Facebook is being able to send someone a message even before they become your friends on the network. So I sent the lady a message to see that she was who I thought she was. I was so excited to receive her reply confirming that she was actually the same person but of course she had no clue as to who I was too. I sent her another message this time a long explanation of who I was and why I would like to have her mother's contact information.

To cut a long story short, she sent a phone number and I woke my mom up in the middle of the night in Nigeria to surprise her with the number. The two women have since spoken and have plans of a face to face reunion. What makes this story amazing? The actual facts . One my mom does not have a Facebook account. She doesn't even own a computer. Two, my mom and myself both live in different countries I live in the US and she lives in Nigeria yet I could still use the resources available to me to help her with her research. Three the lady who I found on the internet was to be married next weekend so if I had waited a little while longer I might not have found her since her last name would've changed. Finally the really trip here is that my mom's friend is back in the Nigeria now so they can actually get to see face to face. Isn't it amazing that Facebook transcends the world of web2.0. What opportunities Facebook and the rest of the world of web2.0 presents.