A few weeks ago, the topic of social networking came up (Facebook and Twitter, in particular) among some work colleagues. I was walking by and stopped to say hello to some people and got caught up in it. Someone said, "It's for people who want to feel connected to a world they are not connected in." And for whatever reason, I found that so interesting. Because social networking is sort of seen as a plus: you stay connected, you can keep up with friends and family and so on. But at the same time, you're alienating yourself from the people in your real life. Right? You're staying connected in front of a screen, not with another face. As the work colleague continued, "This is a community (points to everyone around), not sending a status update on what you're eating to however many hundreds of people you 'know'." That was met with a chorus of laughter.

Through the years, I've become indifferent to social networking. I know something like Facebook has become a necessity in life, and I'm not sure if that's scary or if that's okay. I understand it helps you keep in touch with people, especially the ones you don't consistently talk to but still want to know. And I dig that, I do. But if you don't participate in status updates or sharing things or whatever that's in now, people "forget" you. I personally still treat Facebook like it was way back in the day, pre-news feed, pre-status updates, pre-all that stuff. So essentially, I just exist. People find me, that's cool. A random hello from time-to-time, great. And in that sense, I guess I'm bucking the norms of social networking--you have to be active and participate. Much like in real life, to meet people and make friends, you have to go out and do the whole meet-and-greet.

But you can look at me and say, "Amy, you blog." Well, yes, that's true. I write online and somehow people read what I write and there's feedback (can I just say, after all these years, this still amazes me to this very day? People actually read what I write? What?). But you see, blogging wasn't always social networking. It was just... writing online. An online journal. And I still treat it that way. I'm not against making it into a community because it's actually kind of great and we are a community. We "meet" each other and sometimes actually do meet each other. And in that sense, it is sort of like Facebook, minus some details. But I don't know, this thing of writing online--it just feels different from most kinds of social networking. I can't quite explain why.

Sometimes I think social networking makes email and phone calls obsolete. It's like email is the new handwritten letter and phone calls are some strange creature from the unknown (what is this noise? A human voice?!). I guess I'm just old school with how I keep in touch with people. I like writing and reading emails, I have come to love phone calls (well, Skype calls at least), and I like getting an old-fashioned letter in the mail! Anyway, I had a point to all of this, but I forget now. It was something along the lines of unplug yourself now and then, because all this connectivity can leave you more alone than you think. Something like that. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to publish this entry, update Flickr, check Tumblr and...



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