social networking sites

Hi,

Ok.............you need to stop reading this if you are still not logged on to any social networking site till yet.

More importantly, if you aren't logged on to any social networking site, please get a life!

I have been an on and off member of one or two networking sites and I have found the following uses for them:

1. Sex
2. Sex
3. Sex
4. Dating
5. Offloading yourself on new and hapless subjects, with raves and rants against the world.
6. Finding a place to get your meandrings published, in case you are too lazy to blog.
7. Getting into nasty fights and snarl matches with people you have never met.
8. Showing your dark side to the netizen world.
9. Finding new victims if you are a serial killer.
10. Finding a serial killer.

I have nothing against social networking sites. But, I think they only work if they have an offline use. Unless they don't, you are cheating yourself of a real life. In the meantime, the rules of engagement have changed. All you now need to do to get rid of a person is press delete!

But, yes, I must admit, the one great thing about some sites and communties is a feeling of belonging. The only scary thing that I find is, has this feeling of belonging replaced real, normal human interaction?

Maybe I belong to an old school of thought, but I find it difficult to relate to a person who does not have a real life, or even identity in my real world. Its like going bungee jumping without a rope.

In the meantime, my office has invited me to orkut, where anyone I notice is at least a decade younger to me. So while I have nervously made a profile of myself on the site, I am not sure, I could survive the wealth of information and teenage angst in that vistual space.

In the meantime, as it still suffices uses, 1, 2 and 3, in that order...............I guess I have no reason to complain :)