Now, I'm not one to dob on my friends. But who said they were friends? They're just colleagues, right?

Anyway, logging to the website Facebook one work day (as is the obsession I talked about in my last blog) I discovered that no fewer than SIX fellow Northern Echo reporters were online, or had been online, during that work day. At the time I checked (for research purposes, obviously), these colleagues included Doreen, Dawn, Petronella, Nina and Murcia*.

Doreen who sits a few metres from me, had the audacity to be talking about Facebook very loudly in the middle of the office at about 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon...

Ha, so it turns out I am not the only one who has an addiction. To date, 10** Northern Echo reporters are now members, and maybe more I haven't unearthed as yet.

Like I said in my last blog, there are lists that record what you do, when you did it, and what you did...so it could be very incriminating should the boss log on.

Anyway, as the Facebook addiction spreads quicker than Bird Flu, I grow increasingly worried about the motives behind the people who set it up. A website, which lists names, birthdays, email addresses, friends, interests, vices and allows you to upload various incriminating photos of plastered friends, naked friends, friends in incriminating positions...etc I have a couple of theories...

1) There is a cult behind it all. They are slowly brainwashing us with subliminal messages; there will be a mass suicide on Christmas Day.

2) The site has been set up by a giant corporation that is planning to use our personal details to bombard us with spam.

Either way, this Facebook thing could be dangerous...

*Names have been changed to protect the identities from the boss.

** While I was writing this I discovered another Echo reporter had signed up and another two ex-Echo reporters...get out now...while you still can...