Social networking

Fifteen minutes ago, I created an account on Facebook. Five minutes ago, I deactivated it. Mind the word 'deactivated' instead of 'cancelled'. As it turns out, there is no way to permanently cancel ones account, which I think is a bit strange. I was only peeping in to see what all the fuss was about, and no I'll probably have a Facebook account long after I even remember ever creating one. The same thing goes for Hyves. I haven't tried to delete that one, but from what I've heard about it, it's extremely difficult as well.

Social networking sites are a phenomenon I never really understood anyway. It would make sense if there was some way of meeting new people involved, but since it's all about exchanging bullshit with people who are already in your life, I think it's just a really time consuming thing for nerdy people. It takes up a lot of time you could be spending actually meeting up with your friends instead of 'talking' to them through sites like Facebook, MySpace and Hyves.

Aside from that, I don't really like the fact they want to know so many things from you. Of course, this may sound a bit hypocritical from someone who's putting his entire life out on the internet (through the website you're reading right at this moment), but then again, on this site I choose what I want to write about. If I want to, I can decide the only thing I'm going to write about from now on is Madonna, not giving up anything of my own privacy anymore. In fact, as some of you may have noticed before, I have never ever mentioned my company's name on this website, and usually I only mention initials when it comes to writing about other people who might object.

Of course, on a social networking site there's still the possibillity of leaving out certain things you're not comfortable with writing about, but the whole concept of those websites seem to imply that's the exact opposite of what they're after. I don't really see the need for the whole world to know who my friends are. Besides, 'friends' is a very loose concept, seeing the fact that I've got over 200 'friends' on Hyves, more than half of whom I'll probably never again meet up with in real life.

So, yes, I am on Facebook (cause I don't have a choice), and I'm on Hyves (voluntarily), but I can't say for how long to come.