It's Official...

Facebook has taken over the world. Okay, well maybe it hasn't actually taken over the world, but it sure seems like it's getting close. My cell phone took a dip in a puddle this past weekend, so on Saturday I headed off to the T-Mobile store to get a new one. I had planned to get the same phone I had before, but since I had my other phone for over a year, the sales associate told me I could upgrade to a new phone for half the price. He recommended the Motorola Cliq and since I really had no idea what phone I wanted, I took his word for it.

Upon leaving the T-Mobile store, excited about my new phone, I sat in my car and began exploring my phone's features. On the homepage of my phone, I quickly noticed three icons with the infamous white "F" in a blue square, representing Facebook. The default homepage setting of my new phone includes a box showing you your current Facebook "Status," along with the ability to change it without signing onto the actual website, it also includes "News Feed" box, presenting me with my Facebook Friends status updates, and my phone's Messaging box that used to only include Text Messages on my previous one, now includes Facebook Messages. My Contact list in my cell phone now also includes all of my Facebook friends and their emails if they have it listed on their page.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about these features on my new phone, however I was surprised by how much of my phone's default homepage included Facebook. I had to download an application on my previous phone for similar features regarding Facebook, but this one came more than fully stocked with the features just a year later. I no longer have to sign on to Facebook to update my status, send messages or see what my friends are up to, I can now just glance down at my cell phones home screen for all of the above. I did however actually remove the icon where my friends status updates show up because I found it to be a little bit of a Facebook overload for me.

Social Networking popularity is clearly increasing exponentially, where now cell phone manufacturers believe its important to include Facebook features on their new phones to help market them. In turn, these new phone features also have people logging on to Facebook even more. Since I got my new phone, I have noticed myself on the site much more due to its constant presence on my cell phone and I also find it kind of annoying that I have to scroll through all of my Facebook friends to find the person in my Contact list that I am trying to call. Even though I love my phone, I'm starting to think that all this Facebook stuff is just a little bit much....