Happy Birthday, Facebook

Every year brings new milestones. Next week, for example, America will observe the 200th anniversary of the birth of the man who is widely believed to be the greatest American president, Abraham Lincoln. As fate would have it, another man whose name lives on — Charles Darwin — was born on the very same day in the very same year.

There will be similar anniversaries all year — and not just the anniversaries of the births of famous people but also the anniversaries of deaths of famous people. In my family, this year will be the 20th anniversary of the death of my grandmother, who lived a long life before dying in her 90s. She wasn't famous, but she was loved by all and is missed by those friends and relatives who are still living.

This year will also bring milestone anniversaries of significant events — one noteworthy example is the anniversary that will come this July, when it will be 40 years since man first walked on the moon.

This is kind of a roundabout way of leading up to what I want to say, which is that today is the fifth anniversary of the founding of Facebook. I have only been a part of Facebook's online community for a few weeks, really, but it has re-connected me with so many old friends with whom I thought I had lost touch forever.

In fact, I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. But I didn't realize at the time — in fact, I didn't realize until today — that Facebook was founded five years ago, on Feb. 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, who was a 19-year-old college student at Harvard. He is 24 now, and he is the CEO and president of Facebook, which, according to Wikipedia, has a net worth of $1.5 billion.

Wikipedia describes Facebook as an "online social network," which is probably a significant part of the reason why I resisted it. As I've said before, I tended to dismiss it as a dating and social site. One of my disappointments has been my failure to find someone to share my life with, and, when I was younger, a dating site would have had tremendous appeal for me. But, by the time Facebook came along, I had pretty much reconciled myself to the idea that I wasn't likely to find someone, and I didn't give it much thought. It seemed like something that was aimed at younger participants.

After being prodded by a friend from my college days, I decided to join last month — and I was pleasantly surprised to discover the diversity of the site. As I say, I've been re-connected with many old friends through Facebook — including a woman who, 40 years ago, used to babysit for my brother and me!

I'm not trying to shill for Facebook. I have a good friend who knows a lot about the ins and outs of computers and the internet. And, based on his experiences and his knowledge, he is suspicious — and perhaps justifiably so — of any site where personal information is gathered — even the most innocent-appearing information. He continues to resist Facebook. I respect his opinion, and I know that privacy is a genuine concern in the virtual world.

But I want to make it clear that membership in Facebook is free. It earns its income from advertising, and, to be honest, I've seen complaints about some of the ads on Facebook expressed by some of my friends who are members there.

So, like everything else in life, Facebook is not without its drawbacks. Users will have to balance any concerns they have with the potential benefits.

By the way, in the spirit of the occasion, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that Facebook shares its birthday with many famous people who were born on this date — Charles Lindbergh (in 1902), golfer Byron Nelson (in 1912), civil rights activist Rosa Parks (in 1913), feminist Betty Friedan (in 1921), former Vice President Dan Quayle (in 1947), former pro football player Lawrence Taylor (in 1959) and Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Carly Patterson (in 1988).

Likewise, there were famous people who died on this date. Singer Karen Carpenter died on Feb. 4, 1983. Another famous musician, Liberace, died on this date in 1987. Former House Speaker Carl Albert died on this date in 2000. And Friedan died of congestive heart failure on her 85th birthday, in 2006.

And, as a lifelong Beatles fan, I feel compelled to observe that it was one year ago today that NASA transmitted "Across the Universe" in the direction of the star Polaris, which is 431 light years from earth. It was done to mark the 40th anniversary of the recording of that song, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network and the 50th anniversary of NASA.