#corollaryaddendumadditionally

Pursuant to my last post, a brief rant on social networks. Please keep in mind, this is just me coming to terms with a new age of interaction.

I think what I've realized irritates me about social networking is: your friends are not your fan club. It's okay to not have enough energy to update each and every one of your friends on the intimate details of your life. It's pretty reasonable to make big announcements in fan club form, but our friendship is only meaningful to me, inasmuch as we talk directly. We don't have to exchange all relevant life details every time we meet, but if the only interaction you want with me is for me to follow your newsfeed . . . that's not something I'm going to be into. It has no value for me, and it means I clearly have no value for you if personal interaction is not what you're going for. I'm just not interested in being part of anyone's fan club. I'm interested in conversations, not status updates. And for the record, most of my updates are more akin to tweeting/screaming into the void. I'm pretty okay if my friends don't follow my online presence that much, I just like expressing myself. But you're free to call bullshit if you find me in hypocritical breach hereafter.

Crank summary: We exchange status updates for conversations at the expense of our friendships. I think it's another example of our continual leap into the shiny and new with no time to ask "is this better?"