this could be slightly hypocritical but - I hate social networking sites

[Afterthought]

Myspace - hate it. Facebook - hate it. Twitter - hate it.
regular mail went the way of the dodo because of email. I get it, that's something I totally understand.
but people nowadays would rather text people than talk to them. (the cell phone argument I have will be saved for another time.)
and it's not enough that we text each other daily, some people hourly, now it's to the point where social media has taken over some people's lives.

it's all Facebook this and Twitter that.
call me an old man, but a person's worth can be measured by their words and their actions, not by how many "friends" you have.
because those "friends" and "Twitter followers" you have?
you've probably never met 75% of them in real life, and never will.

so while I don't endorse hacking the shit out of them - I'm looking at you Anonymous.
at least, I would, if I knew who you were.
I still think they're evil. i.e. - funny and convincing arguments abound.
so to end this rant, none of that stuff for me.
I'll stick to my message boards and emails...and yes I can see that's slightly hypocritical.

[Vanish]

Interesting. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you've never really used Twitter and are basing your assumptions on things you've overheard or read. Contrary to popular belief, Twitter is only about what people ate and when people are pooping only if you follow people that waste their time posting such worthless crap. Twitter isn't about follower count unless you're a celebrity. They seem to think that number is some kind of badge of honor.

Twitter is an indispensable tool, if you use it correctly. Have I met 75% of the peopleI follow? Nope. Do I need to to find value in what they share? Again, nope. I have gained so much knowledge and insight by following people on Twitter that I could never, ever gain anywhere else. It's also kind of cool when a celebrity, or even better, someone you respect and admire, responds to your comment or question.

Some of my tweets were published in a book by David Pogue called 'The World According to Twitter'. (If you don't know who David Pogue, could you please tell me the primary mineral composition of the rock you live under? Thanks.) I strongly encourage you to read the introduction to that book. DP thought Twitter was yet another social wasteland, until someone showed him how useful and valuable it could be. That introduction explains Twitter better than any other source I've read. If you want some good laughs, read the rest of the book.

Speaking of laughs, if you like to laugh, you are doing yourself a GREAT disservice by not using twitter to follow some HILARIOUS people, including a man from Omaha who is now famous for his humor, by just tweeting his thoughts as they occurred to him. He was completely, and utterly unknown just 2 years ago.There are lots of people like that, and at the same time you can follow the standards folks, like John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Steve Martin, Conan O'Brien.

When I finally "got" Twitter, was when I posted a tweet asking if anyone had a solution to a coding problem I was facing. I had a whopping 13 followers at the time, all good friends. I got responses from over 200 people, including 10 different, valid ways to solve my dilemma. In 30 minutes. Beat that Google. Oh, that's right. You tried. R.I.P. Buzz, Wave, and soon +.

[Vanish]

Almost forgot. Twitter is also a great place to vent... anonymously... and discover you are SO not alone. I have an account that several of my co-workers also have access to. We rant about daily work life there. Some of those tweets get RT'ed often as people want to share in. If you want access to the account to rant about your workplace (we try to never, ever name people or businesses to keep things generic) let me know. I can give you access, so long as you never expose anyone else using the account.

[OU8]

Think of apps like FB and Twitter like tools....say a Hammer, for example. 

If misused, they can be destructive -- and the people doing this get ALL the press coverage (who cares about the millions of hammers building houses; show the dimwits busting out car windows with them).

So yes, while there are hundreds of people that use these things for extreme "look at me" ego trips, there are MILLIONS of people just staying in touch with family and friends, sometimes in far away places, where otherwise they would have lost touch. 

Oh, and I agree about texting....it's made people become lazy spellers and spawned a generation of teens who have no idea how to hold a vocal conversation.  Most texting is meaningless tidbits, exchanged at light speed.  Usually when I get a text, I will call the person back (because texters typically have no idea how to write 1 long text telling you everything they have on their mind...even though they could)

Here's how I see a typical text conversation:

Texter 1: Hey
Texter 2: yo
Texter 1: whatcha doin
Texter 2: nm, u??
Texter 1: nm
Texter 2: coo
Texter 1: hang 2nite?
Texter 2: hellz ya!1!
Texter 1: lmao
Texter 2: :-)

[Grizzly]

I like texting because it's quick and to the point. If a conversation is necessary, I don't mind a phone call,  but I hate it when people call me for no good reason (other than sheer boredom). If they text me instead, I can answer at my convenience, and get back to whatever I was doing.

Rest assured, I'll never let it affect my spelling or punctuation. 

[OPIE]

I use Facebook as a way to vent about my frustrations. The beauty party of it is if people want to read it they can, if they don't then they don't have to. It's always nice to have someone comment and agree with your or at least offer their opinion or story that is in relation to the post. I'd rather do that then rant to someone in person and just annoy them to death as I hate that myself because it's happened to me. You know that moment you just want to punch the guy in the face and tell him to stop whining and shut up?

I agree that twitter and facebook have taken over some peoples lives. But it's just another thing to get addicted to...like video games. Everything is fine as long as you take it in moderation.

As for Texts. Well I only own a cell phone. I use Virgin Mobil and my plan is $25 a month for 300 anytime minutes, unlimited Text and web data. So I prefer the text to the phone call. It's like Grizzly said, I get to answer back at my convenience and if I don't answer back all my friends just assume I can't talk or don't want to talk rather then someone calling me and having just just listen without responding because I don't want to talk. I'm not afraid to tell someone that either I have done it before. It ruffles feathers but my friends know me well enough that I could care less about that and have learned to accept it. If I don't want to talk...I simply don't want to talk. It's nothing personal.

I also find texting as a nice tool to remember things. I usually keep the threads open for quite some time before deleting them to make room on the phone. It's always nice to be able to go back to that conversation or if someone was just telling me a certain time I had to be somewhere incase I forgot or am bringing the topic back up so I don't have to go..."ahhh shit, what did you say about that again?"

[Thunder]

Get off my lawn, now.

[OU8]

Get off my lawn, now.

That's what she said