Face value 1

Deborah Rogers' view of Facebook is unnecessarily negative ("I poke dead people: the paradox of Facebook", 18 June). The amusement to be found in poking, joining frivolous "interest" groups and pimping one's profile is pretty short lived, at least in the more mature cohort of users.

Today, my home page illustrates very different preoccupations - the pro-democracy protests in Iran, the attacks on Romanian families in Northern Ireland and so on.

My Facebook friends are people I have worked and studied with, and people I have met through campaigns and shared interests, who I will probably never meet.

Cruelty and superficiality are not exclusively or necessarily features of social networking sites. If that is Rogers' experience, perhaps that reflects what she was looking for. Perhaps she needs a new "friend" ...

Catherine Annabel, University of Sheffield.