(RNS) “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”

So goes the tagline for the new film, “Social Network,” which explores the disputes, betrayals and lawsuits surrounding Mark Zuckerberg’s founding of Facebook.

That Zuckerberg made enemies is indisputable. But the real question “Social Network” asks all of us is, “Can you make 500 million friends, without making any friends?”

Harvard classmates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss sued Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea to create the site that eventually became Facebook. It is one thing to betray strangers, yet another to betray a friend, so the sadder tale is actually that of Eduardo Saverin, who was Zuckerberg’s only real friend.

Saverin invested Facebook’s original startup capital in exchange for one-third of the company, a credit of co-founder on the masthead, and title of CFO.

As it plays out in the film, Saverin’s personal bond meant little to Zuckerberg, who took advantage of that trust, convincing him to sign papers that resulted in losing his major stake in the company while Zuckerberg became a billionaire.

Does it seem odd to you that the young man behind the world’s biggest “social network” appears to be a friendless, socially awkwardly geek, at least on film? What about the idea of 500 million people “friending” complete strangers or mere acquaintances?

Here the story takes a personal twist. The weekend “Social Network” hit the theaters in the U.S., I was in England with a friend who convinced me to join Facebook, despite my longstanding concerns.

There are many reasons I resisted going on Facebook.

I observed a lot of friends so addicted to social networking that they ignored people actually in the room with them. I didn’t want to take the chance that the new media would, in the words of Marshall McLuhan, “work me over completely.”

After a broadcasting and writing career that was mostly national in scope, I became convinced of the importance of local, grassroots initiatives. A friend once pointed out that in my career in syndicated radio, I was a disembodied personality who communicated to a mass audience of people, most of whom I never met in person.

So I decided to focus locally. I moved to a sparsely populated island in Puget Sound to be part of a smaller community. Facebook seemed like an impersonal network, and I wanted in-person, not virtual, friendships. So I stayed away.

Since I’d been pretty vocal about these and other concerns, most of my friends were shocked when I joined Facebook. So why did I decide to join up despite my misgivings?

Ironically, I joined Facebook because I want to serve my friendships better.

My e-mail inbox has been overloaded for a long time, especially with notes from listeners and readers wanting to keep in touch. I once blogged daily for a large group of faithful readers, but do so less now. Maybe, I thought, this group of listeners and readers would be satisfied with more regular tweets and Facebook postings and less frequent full-length blogs.

Facebook allows me to sort my lists into family, church friends, personal friends and “public friends.” Maybe, I thought, Facebook could help me tailor my communications to each group more effectively.

And Facebook helps people find each other. Over the past years I’ve lost track of friends when their e-mail address changed, and the great thing about Facebook is that everyone updates their own changes on their end. Best of all, long lost friends have found me in this process.

I watched “Social Network” in Seattle with a Luddite British friend who knew almost nothing about Facebook. Watching the film, he became genuinely concerned about the direction of the story. At one point he leaned over and whispered, “You seem to have gotten yourself into a rather nasty business, Dick!”

Zuckerberg may struggle with relationships, and the origins and practices of his mega website may have been nasty at times, but in this global neighborhood, Facebook means we can stay connected with distant friends.

The real challenge for all of us is to make sure we don’t displace face-to-face local friendships with virtual Facebook friendships. The message is simple. Manage technology, don’t let it manage you.

(Dick Staub is author of the just-released “About You: Fully Human and Fully Alive” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)