Social NETworking or Social NOTworking?

Social Networking is all the buzz. From teens to stay at home moms, corporations, and political figures, everyone is doing it. Tweeting, posting on Facebook and MySpace, IM, texts, LinkedIn, and blogging. It makes me wonder what happened to picking up the phone and saying "Hello, how are you?" or writing a note to express your thoughts.

Is there such a thing as too much communication? I think that all of this NET-working causes us to have a distorted view of who our friends are and who our acquaintances are. As soon as you accept or ignore someone on Facebook, you now have an instant friend. How easy was that?

It is exhilarating, for some, to see that they have 1391 friends. Who in the world has 1391 friends? Each of these "friends" have access to your daily activities, and sometimes a minute to minute play if you choose to tweet about it.
How are these electronic relationships affecting young people? I come from a generation where it took time to determine whether someone becomes a friend. You meet, find out if you have things in common,and it takes a while to foster the relationship. I was taught that your inner circle should be sacred, and personal.

This rapid intake of information, accepting friends, posting, and tweeting everything about yourself may have a detrimental affect on the minds of children and teens. Morals, values, personalities, and habits are being formed in the teen years. Yet, teens are spending time forming relationships with people they don't really know or care about. My opinion is this just may *not* be working.

Solution- If you are 30 years old and older talk to teens about what I call the good ole days. When we called people, knocked on the neighbors door and asked if the boy/girl next door could come out and play, played board games, not video games, wrote thank you notes and Christmas cards, not e-notes and e-cards, had coffee with a friend to help her through a rough patch in her relationship, connected with a date by conversation, not by text, formed a relationship with the opposite sex by asking questions, and knowing who their friends are. The list could go on and on. I think the 80's babies know what I mean.

What goes around comes around, just look at the fashion industry. I do not believe we are doomed, and all relationships are going to be ruined by a MAC and a PC, but I do believe we have to slow things down just a little bit for the sake of the next generation. Let's bring the conversation back around.