Everyone has one friend holding out on the Facebook craze. Some old-fashioned types fear identity theft and prefer not to take part in any Internet-related activities no matter how secure they might promise to be. Some conspiracy-theory types believe social networking sites are the initial step of the matrix and, once everyone is locked in, computers will take over the world.

Still others think Facebook is simply a fad that will soon pass and make way for a new social trend and, though this group of hold-outs may have a point, they are slightly wrong. Facebook or some form of Facebook is the future. The site now offers so many Web applications to users that every possible human necessity is available at your fingertips or at your mouse pointer, as it were.

Community with Visual Stimuli
Facebook and its predecessors Myspace and Friendster were all built with the purpose of community in mind. Friends could keep in touch over long distances with messages and "wall posts" and Facebook-ers with updates could inform everyone at once with bulletins and updated photos.

Of course, given the opportunity to communicate in this way, over time many users substituted Facebook for human interaction. Friends living next door to one another or coworkers sitting in joint cubicles have been known to Facebook information to one another rather than sharing it verbally. Board games have been replaced with Internet versions and virtual cliques have now developed. Families can even be reunited through the Facebook app "We're Related".

Dating
The moment online social networking spawned, single people were "browsing" for dates. Friendster featured every profile's "relationship status" and the process evolved with Myspace when users earned the ability to browse people based on advanced searches in their immediate area.

To date, a Facebook search for "dating apps" returns nearly 165 results. Any possible type of person, type of relationship or type of position are represented on Facebook. If you want to be matched up, there's an app for you; if you want to look at pics of single people in your hood, there's an app for you; if you want to meet someone your mom won't hate, there's an app for you. And as fewer people want to pay an online company for dating services, the results will continue to grow.

Man's Best Friend
Pets are well represented on Facebook and Myspace. Some real pets have their own profiles but users also have the opportunity to care for a virtual pet. Dogs, cats, monkeys, penguins or any animal existing in nature can now appear in your virtual world.

The Facebook pet apps create an ideal pet for free. Users never really have to feed these creatures even though some apps remind them on a daily basis to "feed" and "play" with these pets. But no real harm ever comes from ignoring them. In addition, some apps allow a user's friends to "feed" and "play" with the pets and if they have more time on their hands, it might be for the best.

Shelter
It may not be actual shelter but Facebook-ers do have the ability to download "houses". Users have the ability to update the interior design, perform new construction projects on it and even landscape the yard all around it. It's certianly a lot easier than trying to get a mortgage right now.

Other apps give users the ability to order different products to be delivered to their home. Most of these items are nothing more than homemade gifts made by fellow Facebook-ers but it's only a sign of things to come. It's only a matter of time before you'll be able to order a real house

Food
Following in the footsteps of those homemade gift sellers, Pizza Hut has become one of the first major companies to offer delivery of actual food to the homes of Facebook-ers. Until recently, Facebook-ers could only send and receive virtual foods but now it's getting real.

The application places orders for users and even remembers their "favorites". Pizza Hut's official Web site allows for online ordering too but why navigate away from checking a friend's latest status update to do something like get food?

We're a lot closer to the future than we thought but is this really the future we want? Where's our hoverboards and self-drying jackets? All we get is virtual games and virtual friends.