I feel as if I have dipped my foot into the pool of most of the social networking sites out there. I had a brief tryst with friendster, myspace, & twitter. I had a love-hate relationship with facebook. However, now I have reached the point where I shed these websites & managed to delete my accounts.

Why? Most of them are seemingly innocuous.

I have found, like most of you out there, that as life progresses, we progress as well. Adaptation is key! While it is regrettable, people fade out of the new context of who you are. I feel like sites such as facebook have gotten rid of that natural (dare I say, cleansing?) process so much that the ties of who I was were getting tangled with who I am now. No! I will not remain static.

The response has been underwhelming…as most people don’t notice my absence. This would normally offend me, if I wasn’t already aware of the fact that social networking sites often lead to “friend collecting”. Not to mention the mounting issues with privacy…

When asked, “How will people know how to get in touch with you?” I just shrug & respond that the usual routes of communication remain open: e-mail (I *love* getting e-mail), phone calls, chat programs…

That being said, I love the sites that allow a more ‘fruitful’ form of social networking. Goodreads.com, is a great example of this for me. The priority is keeping track of the books I have read & what books I want to read, while a perk is seeing what my friends are currently reading.

I know it’s for the best - the people that would want to contact me, DO on a regular basis…& thus, already have my info. Granted, this was a process. But now I (truly) realize that I am able to see who my real friends are & are not. It’s refreshing, a little disheartening, & just part of the life process.