That's enough already

I'm sick of the fickle virtual zeitgeist surrounding social networking sites. It started with Friendster where everybody and their mother signed up to stalk ex-high school girlfriends in peace. Then, when the public decided not to swing with that hero anymore, they migrated to MySpace, which became a virus-ridden nightmare. And now we're at Facebook. But what's the point? As a veteran of these time-wasting atrocities, I find it a little tiresome to have to construct yet another profile for the latest craze that purports to connect "us" (I flirted with putting quotes around "connecting" there, but there's no doubt we're being "connected." It's the "us" part I'm a little wary about. I mean, who ARE these people?). None of these sites are permanent. The term "flash in the pan" refers to the glitzy yet ultimately unsatisfying explosion of gunpowder in an ol' timey musket. And it seems these networking sites are nothing more than a series of giddy, meaningless reports from some well-intentioned yet woefully naive pistol.

And the irony is that, eventually, these sites implement additional communication features. Like chat. Online chat (and now video chat, Gmail!). So, in order to REALLY interact with someone you have to go that extra mile and exchange words with them? Well what do you know? Could we maybe pick up a phone and talk to someone? Or better yet, if they're in the same fucking town, how about paying them a visit? I realize that this scenario doesn't give you much of an opportunity to use internet slang (unless you want to get stabbed in the thigh), but hey, who knows, you may actually communicate something.