getmygoat

Sites like MySpace and Facebook are gaining popularity, and the simplistic Twitter is taking mobile phone Internet access to a new level.  While these sites are great for keeping in touch with friends and family who live far away, I find that they hamper my day-to-day life with other friends by creating unnecessary drama.  Does it really matter who I put on my “top friends”?  Can I post a lyric from a song in my head without people assuming there’s some great crisis in my life?  Can I actually have a quick crisis without people broadcasting it online?

At first I just thought that these sites were a tribute to hubris.  Apparently I’m enough of a narcissist that I need not one, not two, but three web sites devoted to me (three web sites that all essentially say the same thing).  We justify it by saying that we need to use as many sites as possible to keep up with a wide selection of friends - not everyone uses MySpace.  But whatever happened to picking up the phone or writing a letter?  Are those practices really so obsolete?  I don’t know about you, but checking the snail mail is the highlight of my day sometimes; I never know who might send me something.

Of course, I’ve taken this personal problem of mine and posted it on a blog which I’ve reserved more for public ideas than for personal rants.  I’ve used the Internet as a medium upon which to rant about my misgivings regarding the Internet.  I’m unsure if this is ironic or simply hypocritical, so I’m going to stop this tangent now and get back to business with my next post.