"Ahahahaha" is one of those new words I'm seeing a lot of on Facebook but what does it mean? Some people break it up and write: "A ha ha ha ha" or even connect it up like: "A-ha-ha-ha-ha". It is usually a response to a humourous remark or 'comment' as it is called on Facebook. So alternatively one could say, "Hey that's funny, I laughed 5 times." But few are so precise.

Facebook has created a dilemma. It kind of sucks you into a world that you are no longer sure of. Are Facebook friends 'friends' or 'friends'? What is a friend? Someone I like? Someone I vaguely desire or perhaps someone who desires me? By calling it a 'Social Network' what expectations are raised? What is in fact a social network? 'Networking' a word that seemed to creep-in in the nineties meant in reality making yourself known to as many as possible generally just to further your own interests. I'm sure the real money was made in other more concrete ways. In the far past communities had a purpose, mostly in defending themselves against hostile outside forces. They had a creed which gave them identity. What does the new social network represent apart from being a free venue for advertising one's lifestyle or personality? But why? For me it's principally a way of keeping in touch with people I knew in the past but now with whom I have little actual contact. So it's merely an extension of memory - so the term 'social network' for me means this. Other people show me what they are about to have for dinner at a fancy restaurant, or for that matter what they've just cooked up. I'm not that interested in this nor meeting people I don't know physically using this medium. It's all too abstract.

I got sucked into 'Linkedin' as well. Why? It just happened by being present on the Internet. Again I traced some folks I used to know in the past, fellow alumni from university days. Again it's mainly for the sake of memory, nostalgia if you like, than anything else.

As usual the laugh is probably on me. There must be something I must be missing by not having a thousand facebook friends. I used to know a thousand people once through having lived in a college during the seven years spent getting my architecture degree. If facebook had been around then, I would have had most of these people under some kind of control and they me. I think I wasted time just as effectively as do the kids now. It's just that I was in the TV room passively absorbing whatever was on. I used to be an avid watcher of Television Cricket. When a Test match was on - five whole days disappeared being involved in something that had nothing whatsoever to do with me. The absurdities of modern living began way back when the refrigerator was widely sold after WWII along with all the other by-products of modern warfare and when the television set came out, it was the end of culture as we knew it.

Two things thankfully go back further. Languages and laughter so it's interesting to see the vocal stresses of the latter becoming a sort of a word on the social network.

If you smile at me I will understand. It's something everybody everywhere does in the same language...." - Stephen Stills, (Wooden Ships)