My thoughts on social networks

First, music to listen to: Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin

I saw a special on Soul Train on VH1 over the weekend and it featured this performance of Rock Steady. She kills it on this song and that bass line is a beast.

Came across an interesting article today in USA Today, actually it was the cover story, on the impact that internet social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. has had on our society.

Here's the link to it: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2010-02-10-1Asocialbacklash10_CV_N.htm

The article is really about how addictive these networks are for some people and the liberation that they feel when they stop using them. While some of the quotes are hyperbolic, comparing deactivating their Facebook account to “regaining their freedom,” it did make me thing about my reliance or lack of reliance on social networks and technology in general.

Concerning Facebook, I usually log on to it once a day to see what my friends are doing, check out some pictures, wish people happy birthday, etc. I'm actually on it right now. Its a good way for me to see what my non-Nashville friends are doing with their lives.

I'm not going to lie, I do look people up from time to time to see what is going on, especially if I haven't heard from them in a few months.

The danger of this is the ever-present potential for “Facebook stalking,” which really does happen, especially to women. If you're a guy and you really want to be creepy, all you need is a name and you can find out all of the information you need, including pictures if that's your thing. Thankfully, I think women have gotten wind of this and have limited profiles.

There's also the element of having friends in general. Some people treat it like its a privilege that they are accepting me as a friend, like I should be honored that they have even considered me. Slow down, bucky. We know each other and there is potential that I may have to interact with you on Facebook, nothing more.

Personally, if I know you in any form outside of the internet, I'll be your friend. If we've had face to face interaction, then we can be friends. However, if its a woman, I always try to tell them that I'm going to message them to be a friend, a forewarning. I think I've requested a friendship with a woman without warning them only once or twice. As a male, you have to be aware of this.

As far as pictures, they're fine as long as you have common sense. I'm not going to put pictures of me socially drinking or doing any other “adult” oriented activities. Its not because I'm afraid of an employer seeing them, I have a Blog, I have a relatively open book to my personal life, but I just don't think people want to see that stuff. When I was an SID for baseball at Belmont, I put up pictures of my travels and people actually liked seeing what it was like for a college baseball team on the road. That was productive. I do like seeing pics of that nature, as well as family pics, your kids, your significant other, its all good in my book.

Now some people put a little too much of themselves out there, I don't necessarily need to see you without a significant amount of clothing, if you catch my drift. However, I rarely run into that unintentionally.

I have no interest in playing any games on Facebook. I don't want to do anything related to Vampires. I don't want to be in a Mafia War.

This is when the social networking can become time consuming. When I first joined Facebook, I had a large amount of friends wanting me to play these games and download applications. I didn't like this for two reasons. First, I didn't want something bad getting on my computer. Second, I just don't have the time or interest to do it.

I have never had an interest in MySpace so I can't comment on that.

As far as Twitter, I have an account but haven't posted anything in weeks. The only good thing for me personally is that its an excellent way to follow sports. All of the writers that I follow will post their items on Twitter, so its an easy way to get to them. Also, during a contest, you get direct reactions from people, so that's a good thing.

I was going to go into other technical things like my lack of a DVR system or lack of internet on my cell phone, but its getting late and one of my New Year's lifestyle alterations was to get more sleep.

The guitar is going to happen by the end of the year and my first French lesson will be on Sunday. Still working on the Dad, its on my end.

Until then grasshoppers, good fight and good night!