Has Second Life become reality?

You know who your friends are and most people can count the number of their 'real' friends on one hand. It used to be so simple; you had a group of friends and that was it. You spoke to them on the phone, you met them in town or went round their house to play Mario Kart on a Saturday morning (ok that still happens). If you didn't want to see someone, you didn't. If your lives went down a different path then you lost touch unless your friendshop was strong enough to last. Survival of the fittest. You'd meet new friends along the way and so went the cycle of friendship.

NOW... I have old friends, new friends, auld enemies, weirdo's I never spoke to, work colleagues past and present, relatives and even my parents friends all on Facebook. Then there are my aquaintances on Twitter and the old school Myspace crowd.

So does that mean I have a second life? A secret life? Are friends, like products, becoming niche items. Things to be compartmentalised and kept separate, only to be called upon when a specific need is required. I use Twitter mainly for networking but Myspace to yell about what my band are up to. I'm friends with people on Facebook who made my life hell as a kid and I thought i'd seen the back of - only for them to appear in the god dam 'People You Might Know' area...

The other side of the story is that this segmentation of friends helps get the most out out existing relationships and find new ones.

One things for sure...keep your social networking friends close, but your social networking enemies closer! You never know what they're saying about you.

social media blog