A realisation occurred to me today. Although I love technology and couldn’t live without it, there is a point where you can know far too much about the people around you.
Traditionally with friendships you see people once or twice a week and enjoy spending a few hours with them. You catch up and listen to what they have been up to. You then go your own way and live separate lives for a while.
With Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and other social networking sites you hear every moment of a friends life. You realize that what they share with you during your time together doesn’t always mesh with what they put out there on social networking sites. You find that they aren’t always the person they purport to be during your short catch ups in ‘real’ life. This then leads to a sort of cognitive dissonance and you start to view them differently.
Sometimes it would seem that access to info about your friends is too readily available and the barrier of friendship is crossed too often.