Does social networking irk you?

[aaron]

i like it. keeps me connected with people throughout the country. also unbelievably useful if you're in a band.

[fast]

I use social networking solely for the ease of filtering through people I want to talk to. I will freely give people I meet my name so they can find me through facebook, but for them to obtain my personal email's is a different story.

[Luke]

I grew up in Chicago for ten years, Columbus Ohio for three, then moved to NC, so social networking is useful for finding old friends.
Plus, I am on a business networking site.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

i like it. keeps me connected with people throughout the country. also unbelievably useful if you're in a band.

This is so very true. My band communicates through a group on Facebook. Keeps everybody organized.

[MrPopo]

Plus, I am on a business networking site.

Linked In? That's about the only one that seems useful to me, and one of these days I'm going to sign up for it.

[Luke]

Plus, I am on a business networking site.

Linked In?

You got it! It's pretty great for professionals.

[Haoie]

Is Facebook a verb? Hmmm.

[General Chaos]

I don't use any social networking sites, but I certainly see their appeal.

That said, based on the experiences of friends it seems as though people who were in fact not your friends, or perhaps never even spoke to you will use these sites as a way to forge a very superficial relationship that never was. I'm particularly refering to old highschool classmates who evidently assume that regardless of the fact that you disliked them in highschool, you will be eager to forge a virtual friendship with them now that they've grown older, fatter, and very likely somehow even less interesting than they were then.

[SpaceBooger]

I only use social networking as a tool to bring people to my site.
I update Twitter when I make a new post and Twitter updates my Facebook page. Other than letting my "friends" and "followers" that I have new content, I usually post other thing to keep people following me and interested.
Not too much personal stuff, just stuff that may help get people to my website. Too much personal stuff irritates me.

[Pulsar_t]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53492.html

Fast-forward four years, and things are getting out of hand. The fad has turned into a culture, where people are reduced to metadata that is sold to the highest bidder. The lines between work and private life can't get any blurrier. The future is one sucky place for the people who hate the Selfie generation.

The only solution is completely going offline. I hope that turns into its own subculture in the years to come. Maybe even thriving economies off the grid.