A friend on Facebook invited me to try the “X Me” application. It sounded a little silly but it was a person I respect, so I clicked on it. As soon as it installed, it popped up a list of more or less everyone I knew asking if it was OK to mail invitations to them. I said “no”, and then (weirdly) it popped up one other name and I said “no” again. Now I’m getting messages from people asking if I really think they should install “X Me”. This, obviously, is a virus.

As of now, I ain’t installing any Facebook apps unless someone I know and trust lets me know, in a personal and one-to-one way, that they’re using it and it works as advertised and isn’t a scummy virus.

In Facebook, nobody can hear you scream. Except your “friends”. A blog is different.