Social Networks: Are We Farther Apart?

I was never a member of a social network until a went to college and joined Facebook. I did post on forums and made comments on blogs but never actually made a friends list and communicated with people constantly. There initially was talking face to face with someone and having an actual conversation. Then we went to phones where we seemed further apart but could hear people's actual voices. Eventually people decided they could be more expressive and efficient by sending text messages and e-mails. This is how the social networks we know today started.

When I was in high school I always thought that Myspace would be pointless to join. I actually went over my friends houses and would call them if I needed to talk. Then Facebook came around and people told me to join it to get to know who my "friends" are. I found the design a lot more simple then Myspace and the simplicity of the site helped me join it easily. I searched for people I know and received messages from old friends. This system then started to transform into people getting addicted to having the most friends, stalkers appearing everywhere, and soon I really didn't care if someone broke up with their boyfriend or lost a cellphone number.

Now I'm not saying social networks are horrible and need to be gone. But the Internet world always creates fades and soon people take it to far. They eventually get adopted into real life and people lose the sense of calling someone to go to a party and this is what is upsetting to me. This is why people get kinda of amazed that I never update my page or somehow I don't know about certain information. This transferring of information will keep on going into the future though. People will receive notices of someones personal life by just seeing an update on a social network. The general idea of Facebook and Myspace is to late people communicate and have a constant relationship with friends but it soon evolved into a very weird and obsessive fetish. This is just all my opinion though and don't get me started on Twitter.