Giving In To Online Social Networks

Up until last night, I managed to resist social networking sites. I have always considered them to websites as World of Warcraft is to games - once you start, you can never escape. And so I treated them as I did WoW - although I may have looked at it longingly from time to time, and even held the install CD in my hand, I knew that should I ever give in, I would never be able to work again.

With that in mind I resisted Friends Reunited, orkut, then held out against newer sites like flikr, 43 things and twitter. I did give Second Life a look because everyone was talking about it, and I quickly became addicted - but freaked out when I was hit on by a 50 year old Japanese man sitting in his room in his underpants using a teenage girl avatar, so I reformatted my computer and haven't logged back in since.

Although I gave in to Linked In a little while back, I did manage to ignore the invitations that people have been sending me from Facebook for the past year. But, since Leela joined up a couple of weeks ago, I have found myself increasingly tempted by the prospect of getting back in touch with friends who I haven't seen for years. So, last night I dug out an invitation, joined up, and it appears that everyone I know is on there. 12 hours later I now have 17 friends, each of whom I now feel compelled to say hello to. This is before the rest of the million or so other people I know and requested as a friend log on and confirm me.

If you're a friend who hasn't received an add request from me, don't be sad, I just haven't been able to find you yet. So go find me.

Oh dear. There goes my productivity.

Comments

Poor Richard and his million friends. :P

I caved in to creating an account on facebook after enormous peer pressure, so I'm on there as well. Not that I'm very likely to use it much, unless it's good for stalking people. ;-)

Leave a comment