Social Networking

What is it about social networking sites that make me feel like I'm back in high school again, fighting for popularity? Every day, I go and check up on updates and find out what almost every single one of my 'friends' has done that day. I see pictures from nights out and family gatherings and I see quizzes telling me how many friends, in a specific order, leave them comments or wall posts. After sitting down for a while and thinking about it, I realized that it is just like a few years ago when I was in high school. I spent my days fighting to keep from being the anti-social chick and showing everyone that I wasn't afraid to be me. But I was afraid to be me. Not everyone accepts you for the real you and that's a very sad thing.

What really worries me is that people are dragging the pains of high school out into the real world. They are making it possible for me to feel the exact same way I used to feel and causing that problem for the older people who have joined the bandwagon.

Don't get me wrong, I love my networking sites because I can keep in touch with friends and family. But should I really be fighting to make sure that they write me back or censoring myself so that I don't make anyone else uncomfortable? A lot of people have some really opinionated personalities and I happen to be one of them, but no one knows half of what I think because of the many people that I do have as friends on networking sites.

On another note, these sites are full of drama. I wish I could tell you all the times that my past relationships have ended because of social networking and/or other websites. I'm saddened by these things because I don't see how anyone could let something on the internet interfere with their personal lives. Again, every day, when I check my site, there is at least one heartbroken person and another who has updated their relationship status to single. I may not be old, but I remember when you went to hang out with your friends to tell them things like that. You didn't broadcast it for everyone to see. It makes me feel that we have all gotten so amazingly lazy that we can't even pick up a phone to hear our closest friends' voices again.

As I said, I'm guilty of most of these things, but it really just makes you think when you encounter these things daily. You wonder just how far people have to go before they realize they've gone too far.