Social Media Overload?

It all began way back... when? Can any one of us remember a time we weren't tapped into the every move of every person we know?

Well there was such a time, believe it or not, when a cell phone was nonexistent, and only drug dealers or high end business men carried pagers. Now even small children carry a cell phone, because their parents can't imagine not being able to get hold of them wherever and whenever. As an aside, has anyone stopped to ask why these parents don't know what their children are doing WITHOUT a phone? But that is another topic for another time....

Then everyone was on MySpace, then Facebook, then Twitter... theoretically so that we can connect with friends and family we have lost touch with from around the world, and be tapped into the latest of news that matters to us, at our fingertips.

But how many users of these applications actually use them for such lofty purposes? How much of what is posted on Twitter is useful and purposeful and how much mindless useless chatter about things as scintillating as taking a bathroom break, being tired right now, or eating a donut? Do we really need to know our friends' lives in play-by-play action? Do we WANT to? Is this somehow like peeking through someone's window and seeing their private life, and is this secretly what everyone has been dying to do?

Those who are - dare i say - addicted to these applications will defend them to the death. "I use Facebook to connect with family in other countries" (how noble!) "I use Twitter to get the latest local news feed" (how responsible!) "I use MySpace to post pictures of my kids for friends to keep in touch" (how sweet!) But really.... let's be honest here. We use these things because we are nosy and bored, aren't we? Maybe you DO post pictures of your kids, but don't you also spend another hour after that playing with the food fight app?

I'm not saying these things are bad, (personal opinions notwithstanding), but let's at least be honest about what they are for, and ask ourselves, don't we have something better to do with our time, at least PART of the time?And how would we feel if we suddenly saw everyone we know staring in our window in real life? Interesting.