I recently came to the conclusion that I spend too much time using so called Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even friends personal blogs for the purpose of keeping in touch with what friends and family are up to.  “So What?” I hear you say, that’s what they are meant to be used for right?  But what about actually keeping in touch?  You know…  Picking up the phone and having a conversation, or arranging time to meet face to face and enjoy peoples company?  See…  I’m the sort of person that easily falls into the habit of not staying in touch with people, especially if I can see that their lives are moving ahead OK.  Facebook enables that continued contact without it actually being a contact at all.  Sure, it also allows us to let a broad range of friends and people know what’s going on in our lives without having to you know…  be social.  But for some of us this just allows further separation from those “friends” who we may or may not choose to directly interact with.

The truth is there are a large number of uses for Facebook, and we all use various aspects of it each day.  Sometimes we use it to keep our friends informed of what we are up to, sometimes it’s used for advertising and sometimes it’s used to invite friends closer, in an effort to get people socialising more.  It all really comes down to how you yourself use it.  Yes, it is just a tool, but a tool that has so many uses that sometimes it can harm friendships as well as help them.

For me, facebook seems to enable me to become more of a hermit, more of someone who doesn’t get out, and doesn’t feel the need to get out as I seem to have all the friends I need on fthere.  But then, over the years the Internet has done that for me in various other technologies as well, starting with IRC which was the initial Internet addiction.  Yes, I have a problem but it’s one that I seem unable to beat as society keeps leading me back to it.  Sure, ultimately it’s me who has the final say in the end and me who keeps listening, knowing I have a problem but still returning…