Social networking or going out socially?

Social networking has been all over the news lately. There's some interesting reading out there about Opensocial, Facebook's advertising plans, and so on. It seems that as social networking is turning into big business, so are many more people turning to social networking.

But is it really the best thing for us as communicators? I freely admit that I am a member of Myspace and Facebook, yet I've wondered to myself if I'm really becoming closer to my friends or farther away. It's certainly easier to stay in contact with those you can't see personally. I always know what they're doing, what their new likes and dislikes are, and where they're living. The benefits for business people can't be questioned either, as a social network can expand all across the world and introduce you to people that you never would have known otherwise. Those things are great and all, but the old fashion in me says that this trend could damage our people and our language skills if we don't keep them polished.

Whether this is reality or just my perception, the reader will have to decide. But I do think that as long as we place more importance on our physical social networks (the people we have to talk to person to person), than our online networks, we will be doing alright. There just is no substitute for good company and conversation.

I enjoy reading The Phoenix Real Estate Guy's blog, and I think he said it best here in his post.