The social revolution is upon us as anybody within distance of a WIFI network knows. I’m part of the first generation that really grew up with and helped shape the internet.  I spend so much time on the internet, it’s kind of embarrassing if I were to put it into numbers.   I’m all over the social web, but why?  Yes, there is the “convenience” of it, but how convenient is it really?

*Warning, this is full of a lot of over generalizations.  Sorry if I sound like a bitter old man, I don’t really write in a way that should be taken at face value.

In the “old” days if I wanted to talk to somebody, it was simple. I either called them on the phone, e-mailed them, or if they were tech savvy, I could even instant message them on ICQ.  Back in those days I had good friends, I mean friends that I could just walk into their front door without knocking. Friends that I could spend all day with, and not run out of things to talk about.  I still have those kind of friends, and amazingly, I pretty much never talk to them using the social web.

Ever since it had become “easier” to talk to my friends, and for my friends to talk to me, I honestly see them less, and don’t really talk to many anymore. It’s just simply gotten too easy to be a lazy friend.  People think being “friends” with somebody on MyTwitterBook means they’re friends in real life.  They will believe that leaving 140 character comments on each others FaceSpace pages counts as human interaction.  Then just to let everyone know that they still go out and have awesome times, they will put up nothing but party pictures.  Whenever I’m out partying now, it’s crazy how many cameras you see, knowing that the photos will be for nothing other than putting on Facebook to show their friends that they know how to have a good time.   People simply didn’t use to do that.

It’s such strange dynamic when people just shout something out into an empty field, hoping that somebody else in that field hears them and shouts back.  They don’t actually talk.  They won’t even take a step closer to each other.  They don’t ask each other how the others day was, because frankly, they don’t care.  They just want to know that somebody heard them.  If that insults you, either you know it’s true, or you’re one of the few awesome people out there and I want you to add me as a friend on whatever.

I’ll read their status updates about how awesome their grilled cheese sandwich just was. Then I let them know I think it’s awesome that they think it’s awesome by clicking on a button. If I REALLY liked it, then I’m going to even comment on how I wish I could have such an awesome grilled cheese too. I’m never directly talking to them.  I’m talking to their comment, as if it was its own entity.

I just don’t see how I should need to spread myself out so thin across all these networks just to make sure I am able to get messages from anybody, at anytime, even my dry cleaners.  If people really want to talk to me, they can figure it out.  I have a phone and an email address.  My phone even gets instant messages if you don’t want to leave your computer.  Kids and their skinny jean technology, dag nabbit.

Now excuse me while I update my Facebook profile to let everyone know that I published a new post on my blog.