Bryophytes on Facebook

So I had avoided the Facebook world until I was preparing for my Japan trip this past spring. The other students going on the trip decided to start a group (on Facebook) so that we could see where everyone would be stationed and coordinate trips together. Thus, I decided to bite the bullet and join the Facebook world.

To tell you the truth I think that the whole social networking think can be an enormous time drain. I try to participate minimally, but I do enjoy keeping up with some of my friends using this medium. Anyway there is a bryological point to this post. I decided to see if there were any bryophyte centered groups on Facebook. Perhaps I could use it to connect to other people who like mosses. So I entered 'moss' into the group search engine and boy I should have known better. Kate Moss, Randy Moss...you name it they have a group on Facebook about it. (The same is true for searching for 'moss' on Google, but you probably already figured that out.) So I tried searching for 'moss plants', which is usually my go to. Still no good. But lo and behold searching for 'bryophytes' yielded some better results.

Some of the names of the groups are pretty fun. For example, "A Rolling Aggregate of Minerals Gathers No Bryophytes: Biologists Unite!" and "Bryophytes! will someday rule the world", whose mission statement is pretty tongue and cheek, as you might imagine. I decided to join the group "I heart (symbol) mosses". It seemed to be my speed and may be another way to put me into contact with others who are in 'love' with moss. Maybe Facebook has some redeeming qualities after all, we shall see.

(Stay tuned for a more science-centered post about mosses and winter. It is in the works.)