Revealing Fascination

I was chatting with my friend Travelocigay as we enjoyed dinner outside at HK. We were having one of those deep intellectual conversations that only trendy gay New Yorkers can have.

“So you like your Blackberry?” he asked me.

“Eh, it’s OK,” I replied, “I’m thinking about switching to the iPhone. Either way I hate AT&T.”

“By the way, have you seen the Facebook app for Blackberry?”

“Yes,” I said. “I downloaded it, tried it for about 15 minutes, found it stupid and annoying, and deleted it.”

“Oh, nooo,” he countered. “It’s fascinating!”

“Fascinating?” I mocked, sharpening my wits to ridicule his Mr. Wizard choice of word.

“Yes!” he insisted, before I could say more. “Listen to this. Once you download it, if you do the permissions and settings and whatever, it will scan all the contacts in your phonebook while it searches for friends.”

“So?”

“So,” he continued, “think of how many guys you have saved in your phone as... Guy from Splash or Hot Bartender or...”

I nodded, recalling that through the years I’d amassed several dozen contacts like Chris MH or Matt MH or Steve MH - their last names the same not because they are brothers, but because they are all part of the brotherhood of Manhunt.

Traveocigay went on excitedly, “So it scans all those numbers, and then matches the numbers with Facebook profiles. Because lots of people actually fill in their phone number on Facebook.”

“Wait,” I said struggling to put it all together, “but I’m not Facebook friends with those people.”

“No, but what it comes back with is information that you probably don’t know – like their full name, and often their main profile picture!”

I stared at him. “That IS fascinating!” I exclaimed.

“Watch,” he said, taking out his own Blackberry and searching for my name in his Contacts. He held up the screen, and there next to my name was the picture I had just uploaded to Facebook days prior.

“It continually updates them?” I asked, shocked.

“Yep,” he replied. “And look, it lists your work as well – I never would have put that in. It’s from Facebook.”

“It’s true,” I replied in awe. “I don’t list a lot of personal info, but I do have my company name listed as public. Amazing...”

“So now when I scroll to the trick I just saved as Big Cock Carl... wah lah! His full name, a thumbnail of his face pic, and look! He went to the same college as I did, and he’s a doctor!”

I said nothing, processing exactly how life-changing this could be for my social life.

“You’re downloading it immediately, aren’t you,” he said smugly.

“Immediately. Fascinating.”