Cyber reality caving in on me

This world just keeps getting smaller and smaller… and it all started so innocently with MySpace.

I saw something on Dr Phil a couple of months back about MySpace and thought to myself – "I should get me one of those!" (As we all know, all fantastic ideas start with something we saw on Dr Phil) So I logged on and set up a little page. Knowing absolutely nothing about html and such things, it all looked pretty basic. Regardless, I felt pretty content and clued up on the cyber happenings of 2007.

Then a couple of weeks later, The Luce piped up about Facebook. I had never heard of it before, but as it turns out, it's pretty much like MySpace without the bells and whistles. So, again, not wanting to be left out the party, I set up another little page.

I started browsing around Facebook – and discovered that everyone can see the amount of friends you have. From a fun way to kill time at work, it had turned into a popularity contest!

I was not prepared for this at all.

I managed to accumulate about two friends (one of them being The Luce) when something popped up informing me that my Ex Boyfriend No. 4 wanted to add me as a friend. Crap! Now he knows that I only have two friends!!! I frantically began to e-mail my friends, begging them to sign up on Facebook, but they all turned out not to be as Internet savvy and decided it was all too much hard work.

So now I was sitting with two friends and an ex boyfriend. It was all too much and I decide to log back onto my old, trusty, less complicated friend, MySpace. Nothing could prepare me for what was awaiting me there…

1 new e-mail!

From Ex Boyfriend No. 3 – the cosmopolitan drinking, pink Renault driving, Erasure listening raging metrosexual. Not only had he found me on MySpace, but he had then googled me and e-mailed me at work.

All I could think was "Darn you Dr Phil!!!!"

As the cyber world began caving in on me – I found myself becoming more and more addicted…I realised, I was a quick mouse click away from finding out exactly who Ex Boyfriend No.4 was dating (who happens to be his ex girlfriend, for the record), who was hanging out with who, where they were going, who had lost weight and more importantly, who had put on weight.

But is this all a good thing?? Sometimes falling out of touch with people is actually okay… sometimes even downright fabulous. We are now permanently connected to a network of people who, despite what Facebook says, probably aren't our friends at all.

As crazy as it seems – the (somewhat) anonymous activity of blogging probably does more to bring people closer together than the multitude of networking tools that are at our disposal.

So rock on blogging rock stars – and have a fabulous weekend!