<p>I think the profile friends are random and they do switch each time the page loads - or at least they switch out one at a time - refresh your page a few times and you will see how they switch.</p>
<p>One of the best uses of FB has come by connection among family members spread many many thousands of miles (and years) apart. Must be 50-75 of us. </p>
<p>Many of us started scanning and posting old photos from our respective albums. And my 79 year old aunt (the oldest surviving member of the family on FB) would write commentary explaining the photos, who was who, or a story behind the photo in many cases. And many of us would chime in with questions, or added facts. </p>
<p>We got to share photos of the family many many years back (often for the first time), we collectively made sense of our family history, and we came to notice similarities among people and events that describe ‘who we are’ (e.g. “anyone notice that everyone in our family has always has a dog, even going back to great grandpa in the field picture…”). We had a lot of good natured teasing, laughs, and it was as if we were all sitting in the same room together, with our older Aunt leading the way.</p>
<p>See, I find LinkedIn fairly useless, except as an address / contact book of sorts. I am on groups for my profession, university and a few other interests, and they are of very little use to me.</p>
<p>To add an interesting dimension to this story, our high school’s Board of Education adopted a policy last week forbidding teachers from ‘friending’ current students on facebook. I am friends with three of my daughter’s former teachers (D has been out of HS for three years now) and know that two of them immediately removed all current students. The third one has not done so yet, and he is the perfect example of why teachers should not be friends with current students - he has very inappropriate boundaries and leaves all kinds of cryptic messages on his wall. Am wondering how long it will be before someone actually sits down and makes him do it. Knowing him, I’m sure he’s enjoying the rebellious aspect of pushing the envelope on this new policy.</p>