Social Networking

Social networking in one form or another has been a big part of our generation. Someone is class mentioned AIM and it made me think of what a big deal it is when I got my screen name. It was almost like a badge of authenticity that you were accepted into your peers group. Then in college I fought off the facebook trend as much as possible because I wanted to be part of the counter-culture that valued face to face or at least phone contact more than the impersonal internet way of communicating. But I finally caved and joined the masses in creating a profile. I must admit that there are a lot of perks to having some of your basic information in a social network like this. If you meet someone you can look at their info to see if there is any interest there, as well as photos to get a better look at them in different situations. But after that it can get kind of creepy, like stalking people who you do not really know otherwise. I have two younger brothers who in the past year or so have joined facebook and I was shocked at some of the stuff they were saying on their profiles and statuses. I kind of had to coach them by telling them how everyone in the world can see the stuff they wrote down. I did not want to see people think badly of them, but they also carry my name which I do not want besmirched. I think it will be interesting to see how this kind of social networking evolves over time.

Greg Beresford