The Internet is a powerful tool.

You can shop for anything from t-shirts to airplanes. You can find turn-by-turn directions to the most remote areas of the planet and thanks to Google Earth, you can see your friends’ and neighbors’ houses across the planet by entering their address.

The “Big Brother” aspect of the Internet can be cumbersome, but many of us, including myself, rely on it in many facets of our job.

Without the Internet, there would be no www.demopolistimes.com; a website that services thousands of readers every week. And without the Internet, our latest venture on the social networking site Facebook would be non-existant.

For our readers who frequent our webpage, you may have noticed the three new bookmarks resting atop the calendar.

One is a subscription to our RSS feed, which will relay headlines to your computer as they are posted. The other is our Twitter Feed which will also send you news updates as they are posted. The other is our Facebook presence.

Even though I am in Facebook’s primary target age bracket, I never had a page to myself. Once we created a page for the Times, I thought it would be wise to create a personal page and familiarize myself with what the site offers and how it works.

After about two weeks, I got the hang of it. However, after only a few days, I started reconnecting with old and seemingly long-lost friends.

For those of you unfamiliar with the site, upon registration Facebook pigeon holes you into several groups pertaining to your geographic location, your high school and your college if applicable. It also breaks down into your interests and hobbies.

This takes the majority of the task of searching for people you know away. It’s almost as if the site knows who you’re probably looking for.

As of yesterday, the Times page had 44 fans. Those who subscribe to our RSS feed get breaking news updates sent to their respective Facebook pages as soon as they’re post to www.demopolistimes.com. It is also another network Demopolities, whether they are current or former, can use to find old classmates, friends or neighbors.

There is no charge to join Facebook and there is certainly no charge for joining our fan page. We hope you will consider joining us and, hopefully, find a few friends – both old and new – along the way.

Jason Cannon is editor and publisher of the Demopolis Times.