Friend Me

Social network overload. I declare it, now: it's going to be the next leading cause of increases in prescriptions...especially for medications related to anxiety treatment.

Friend me. Follow me. Circle me. Link me. Skype me. Buy me.

How about 'just leave me alone' as I can only imagine what people will try to do to me next: ______ me! It's too much! I can't...or don't want to...keep up. Instead of bringing people closer together, it seems as if another social network could lead to the unraveling of society (okay, communication within that society) as we know it. People are already dumbing-down and losing a major sense of decency, acceptability, self-respect, and courteousness.

All of these networks and their associated games are time consuming; I won't mention that most of them compete with each other instead of compliment each other. Companies are deliberately doing this; another sign of greed and wanting to conquer the world solo instead of united. How many of these things do we need??? I mean...really? Friendster (not sure if it's actually still around, but it pretty much started it all); MySpace (does anyone still use it?); Facebook (no commentary necessary); Twitter (bigger and better than people expected; a definite standout from the others); Google+ (just getting started, so we'll see what happens), LinkedIn (going strong, but many still don't utilize it properly), EmpireAvenue (kinda works with the others, but still requires a LOT of time on its own, but the payoff doesn't correspond to the time spent...in my opinion).

When I say time spend and payoff...consider...with all of these networks and the time spent on each; is it worth it? What is the significant and what have you gained: staying in touch with family/friends? Meet new and interesting people (and of those are they of any value/interest to your life? Some have managed to take these sites to the next step and find jobs (other networks besides LinkedIn) and to meet people for dates and hookups. I haven't figured that one out, yet, but I'm sure it requires some serious tactics and some seriously creative social networking game.

Now, while social networks generally allow for you to "friend" someone under certain conditions and circumstances; I generally think it is a good rule of thumb to know someone before you accept/approve/link/follow/circle/etc them. Dangers lurk on the internet and crazy things can and will continue to happen. Safety first!

Back to what I originally said...I guess we'll have to wait and see what's next; but, please note...I can only take so much!