I have recently joined the rest of the free world in exploring that great cyber kingdom known as Facebook.

For those of you who aren’t prone to wasting hours online, Facebook is what is called a social Website. Essentially, it’s a place where you can create an account, post pictures of yourself (or anything else), and share for all the world to see your most random thoughts or actions.

Okay, I’m not totally out of the loop — I’ve played with Facebook before, but until recently I never really gave it much thought. Then a fellow basketball coach told me he can occasionally pick up tips on other teams there, so I joined up.

Here’s what I’ve learned. It’s a wonderful place for folks to share a note or two, to put up encouraging words to their friends, and even share pictures without the costly exercise of going to a store and paying for multiple copies of prints.

It also can be a great time waster. Some folks, I think, live on Facebook, giving us a blow by blow account of their lives.

“I’m out of bed now, brb (that’s shorthand for be right back) because I have to go to the bathroom.”

Pause.

“I’m back. I’m eating Captain Crunch now. Shoot, I just spilled milk down my chin. Oh, well, no biggie, I have to take a shower sooner or later. I’m done with my cereal now, but I have to do something with this dirty bowl. Oh, well, no biggie, I’ll get to that later. Sometime. Hey, now I’m going to watch TV.”

And from there goes a play-by-play description of what’s happening on the television.

Think I’m exaggerating? There are a disturbing number of people who seem to devote their every waking minute to updating the world, via Facebook, on their every thought, action, and conversation. Even something as mundane as telling people they’ve just combed their hair.

The Internet is a wonderful thing, at least in theory. It offers an almost limitless wealth of information. When I was a kid I recall my parents looking over an encyclopedia set, although they opted for a couple of smaller, and much less expensive, pair of general reference books. Those encyclopedias are almost a thing of the past — there is more knowledge available in a few simple Google searches than could be found in a dozen sets of the research books.

It’s also a great communications tool. Again, when I was a kid I marveled at HAM radio operators — those folks who could communicate with people on the other side of the world, given the right conditions and proper timing. Now, I can sit down at my computer and chat with someone across the street, or across the ocean with the same effort.

Despite the wonderful potential — and there are many folks and organizations in Mount Airy who use the Internet and e-mail to do a wonderful job of promoting what’s happening the community — I fear it’s all going to become a great wasteland.

And history would suggest I will be, unfortunately, right.

Television was once considered a marvel of invention, something that would change forever modern society, for the better. Those early TV broadcasters attempted to do just that, with classical music concerts, dramatic shows such as Requiem for a Heavyweight which very nearly replicated the best of live theater, and later news broadcasts.

Of course, you all know what’s happened in the decades since. We now have hundreds of television channels, filled with stand-up comedians who aren’t funny, Jerry Springer wanna-bes, reality shows that are anything but realistic, and so-called news from the likes of Nancy Grace and Larry King.

I’m still hopeful the Internet won’t follow the same path. But given the constant bombardment of flashing, irritating ads, the efforts of many Internet providers to limit what you can get, and society’s general tendency to favor the inane, I’m not too optimistic.