Well, I hate to admit it, but I must finally eat crow.

I am officially on Facebook.

I’ve joined the in-crowd.

I’m no longer a Luddite.

If that word is unfamiliar, check the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly: one who is opposed to especially technological change.”

Well, allow me to beg forgiveness. I am now becoming, slowly, a champion of technological change.

I’ve discovered it is providing me with laughter, amusement and a fair amount of intrigue.

Facebook, for those of you who have not taken the plunge, is a social media venue. It’s a website where you have your own page and a wall to post your stories, messages, pictures and other items of interest. And your Facebook friends can post things on your wall, too.

If you’re not on Facebook, you’re out of the loop. Believe me, I know, having been on it myself for about a week.

I’m still green, mind you.

My first day was overwhelming because there are so many things to learn about Facebook: how to maneuver your page, find friends, chat, send messages and stories, etc.

And when people see that you’re on Facebook, watch out. They chat about you and you stumble on these chats:

“Hahahahaha, Amy’s on Facebook!”

That was the first post I received, from my sister, Laura, a technology wizard, whom I’ve promised relentlessly I’d never go on Facebook.

Well, times change. We swallow our pride. Sometimes we’re forced to do things we say we’ll never do.

As part of our jobs, we all must be on Facebook and Twitter, which really makes sense when you think about it. What quicker way to get the news out there?

In my case, I can send stories I’ve just written and posted on our newspaper website to my Facebook friends before the stories ever get into the newspaper. They are among the first to see them.

Now, I realize this could be a nuisance to some of my Facebook friends unless the stories are particularly compelling.

But the nice thing about Facebook is that you can just delete anything with the click of a finger.

Can you see I’m warming to this new venture in my life?

Actually, getting on Facebook is at first both intimidating and exciting. Intimidating because there’s a lot to learn (I still haven’t figured out what my Facebook friends can see on my site and what they can’t) and exciting because every time you get a request from someone to be your friend, your ego rises a notch.

And then as the number of friends you have on Facebook grows, you get puffed up and confident. I’m up to 104 friends now which sounds enormous, but other Facebook friends have several hundred.

The nice thing is, when you open your page every day, you see all these little boxes containing smiling faces of people who are your friends.

Some you know intimately, some are acquaintances, some co-workers, people with whom you are affiliated through work, old and long-lost friends, some people you don’t really know but have heard about through the grapevine.

The best thing is, you get to choose who your Facebook friends are and you can “unfriend” them at any time.

I’ve decided the virtual world isn’t so bad after all.

It’s, dare I say, kind of fun. 🙂

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 24 years. Her column appears here Saturdays. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com