I’ve been addicted to social networking sites since Friendster circa 2003. First there was Friendster, then Myspace, followed by Facebook, and LinkedIn. I’d even go way back to Classmates.com back when I was in college in the late 90s.
What do I have to show for my intense interest in these sites? Zero. I have frittered away sometimes up to two or three hours of my day searching for the most obscure friend from my past, like the guy that played third base on my baseball team in the 8th grade (the Giants). Or whatever happened to my buddy Phil from 2nd grade…I wonder if I can track him down. Most of the time I come up empty handed, but once in a while I’ll stumble across a gold mine of old friends. I’m amazed at how easy it is to track people down and read the wealth of information they’re willing to share about themselves. I’m glad that you went to Pomona and studying salamanders, spending your summers on the Oregon coast…seriously, very interesting.
The thing that boggles my mind is all the college kids posting pictures of their boozin’ shenanigans from each of the last four weekends for all the world to see, then they wonder why they were turned down for that internship they applied for. Lack of common sense. Don’t pose next to a bong with two thumbs up if you’re looking to work at Morgan Stanley.
So, what have I gained from my estimated 1,000+ hours spent surfing these damn sites, tracking down and friending people I haven’t seen in 10+ years. Not much really, but it’s certainly an interesting opportunity to see where people from your past end up (at least according to what they write in their Myspace profile). Are you really a traveling cowboy performing with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show? Wow, what major do you need for that?
No more wasting time writing this post…time to check out who uploaded some new pictures to Facebook.