Too Connected?

I currently have an account with Facebook, Blogger, Myspace, and Twitter, and let’s not forget the 4 email accounts I have and use. That is a lot of connectivity.

I’m not really sure I just used that connectivity word in the correct context but I really like the way it sounds.

Actually I'm not even sure it is a real word.

Anyways, there are other social sites that I have accounts with, but never use.

One social site I am apart of is supposed to be for ‘professional’ people and a great place to network. I’ve used it once.

I’m also apart of another social site that is for Mother's.

I'm not a mother, yet. I simply signed up because they had a message board devoted to gossip about Jon and Kate and I wanted the scoop bad enough to create an account.

I've mentioned that before, its just ridiculous enough to bring it up again.

I have always been a sucker for social Internet sites. I remember when we got first AOL. I was in 6th grade and thought it was quite possibly the coolest thing ever.

I would come home from school, and if my mom wasn’t on the phone I would sign on and instant message all of my friends that I had just seen at school.

Who can forget that beautiful sound of connecting to the internet. It was quite possibly the loudest noise ever.

And I can still hear the voice of the AOL man every so clearly saying "WELCOME".

I was always so sad if he didn't say "YOU'VE GOT MAIL".

Then in college I had a Xanaga site. Did anybody else have one of these? It was basically a blogging site.

See, I have always been a true blogger at heart.

Then one day, I realized that several of my friends from other universities had this thing called Facebook. I desperately wanted one. I tried to make an account but my particular university wasn’t allowed access yet.

I was ticked and emailed Facebook several times requesting that my university be granted access.

After what seemed like years, but was really only 2 or 3 months they emailed me (or sent me a computer automated message) letting me know that I could now create an account.

I am proud to say I was one of the very first people at my university who had a Facebook account.

Then a couple of years ago I started reading various blogs on the internet (also known as mildly creepily stalking people I didn’t know) and decided that I should start my own blog. It took me awhile to get into the blog flow, but surely after a lot of hard work and perseverance I was a blogger.

Then came twitter and now I tweet more than I probably should.

All of these can be summed up with my iPhone, where I can be connected to all of these things no matter where I am or what I am doing.


Here lately I have started wondering if I am possibly too connected? Do I really need to check twitter all the time? Do I really need to get on facebook to read status updates?


The answer is no, but I still enjoy doing it. I am just a product of our society.

Does anybody else ever feel this way? Do you ever feel like you are too connected with everybody?

I know it can be good that we are all so connected, I mean I knew about the balloon boy from the first minute it happened and I was then able to watch an empty silver creepy-looking thing float around in the sky for several hours.

That wasn't a complete waste of time.

But the fact that I could watch it live on the internet is just crazy to me.

Sometimes I try and think about what it was like when we weren't all so connected. It seems like it was simpler, but I'm not sure I would want to go back.

And this doesn't mean I am giving any of these social sites up. These are just thoughts.