Social Networking Redux

Last April I wrote a post on how everyone at work was putting all their info on My Space (original post).

Since then I have agreed to assist a friend of mine in a project he's undertaken. To make a long story short and not really disclose his business, he asked me to make a Facebook page to support his endeavor.

Insert GRUMBLE here.

I'll fall in line and take one for the team, but I feel like a hypocrite. It's not that I don't wonder what people from my past look like or what some people have been doing...well, maybe it is.

You see, the internet has this incredible ability to assist us in keeping people we know in contact forever - like luggage. Sometimes that is a good thing. I was interested to see what some classmates from grammar school were doing and it is always interesting to connect to people who you already know. But isn't this why I have a web site, email and a blog? If you really give a crap about me don't you already have my contact info?

Maybe it sounds a little callus. I'm reminded of when everyone first got AIM and everyone wondered how many friends you had. Is that what this is? Who does Tave know - and who do they know? Is this some version of six degrees of separation where the goal is to click on your friend's, friends and see if you have friends in common or do most people simply want to peer into other people's lives as a point of conversation?

I am by no means afraid of the internet. As I write this, I can think of at least 3 off color pictures of me posted online. I also know what I've written here is rarely politically correct. So it's not that I'm afraid of people finding out stuff about me. Instead, I think I just don't want to share stuff with people I don't care about - just like I don't "break bread" with people I don't like.

It's bad enough I have to check 4 email addresses to check email, now I also need to periodically check my Facebook?

I need someone to invent software for a portal that allows me to just log in to one spot and see all my emails and connections without having to log in twenty times.

Someone get me Bill Gates.