Social Networking: Changing the Definition of "Social" One Poke at a Time

I don't particularly consider myself to be a "social" person. Throughout my youth, I was always the one picked last for kickball at recess, or sometimes I just played on my own. I was however, picked first by the bullies at school who somehow saw me as someone who had boatloads of lunch money. I must have exuded the sort of aura which many found weird, standoffish, or even intimidating (I tend to prefer the latter) because I never actively sought out the type of social acceptance that seemed to be the norm, especially in junior and senior high school. I extra-curricular activities a chose (and still choose to some extent) were those that placed me in front of a crowd, rather than in the middle of one, which is where I prefer to be to this day, though to a somewhat lesser extent most likely. So how does someone like me, who grew up having very few close friends, end up with having (at last tally) 657 "friends" on Facebook? Now, this is not to say that those bullies from junior high are in my social network (I actually think they're in the slammer, actually), but it would seem like an awful lot of these "friends" are people with whom I have a very tenuous connection. Indeed, there are even a few I have never actually met face-to-face!
In chapter 5 of her book Always On: Language in an  Online and Mobile World, Naomi Baron addresses the online "friend" phenomenon, specifically on Facebook. Her study of this online experience discovered that many users are in fact quite "casual" in the way they accept friends, and this in no way is correlative with the number of "real" friends they have and even goes as far as identifying this trend as comparable to a sort of online sport (p. 89). I will readily admit that I have fallen victim to this very trend on numerous occasions since Facebook has an element of excitement and intrigue that is downright addictive. So, it is easy to get wrapped up in this and forget that the person you just confirmed as a "friend" is actually someone you met once for ten minutes almost a decade ago. It seems to me that Facebook, as well as other social network sites, are attracting generations of shy and anti-social folks and allowing them to make connections that they normally would have never made. Baron also analyzes the IM applications and how people use their "away messages" to give the appearance of being out and about with a group of friends, when in actuality, their sitting in their room alone doing nothing. It would seem then, that these social network sites allow everybody, regardless of social status, to have a presence everywhere without leaving home.
Erik Qualman, in his book Socialnomics, discusses the overall efficacy of social networks. One point that he brings up is how blogging is an indispensible tool for recording your thoughts and opinions, and also for sharing news. Nowadays, people expect the news to come to them and are often put off by having to have subscriptions to online newspapers in order to get the latest scoop. Blogging is a way for regular, everyday people to become recognized experts in their areas of interest because they are right there experiencing the news, whereas a reporter for a newspaper is simply reporting second-hand information. It took me quite a while (relatively speaking) to get into blogging. I'm still trying to make my blog posts as personalized as possible rather than making them sound like a formal essay. But through my recent experiences with blogging, I am able to see why it is so popular and why it is gaining acceptance not only a valuable research tool, but also for the purposes of social networking and getting my ideas into the public sphere.
I used to lament the fact that I was a little anti-social, mostly because I realized that I came off as being a little rude when I chose to keep to myself in social situations. Even though I am still somewhat ill at ease in social situations, I have found solace in my ability to network with a large number of people and to promote my own projects without having to put myself into those uncomfortable environments where I am expected to be talkative and outgoing. Now I have a sort of shield which is helping me express myself in a manner which works for me.