We should have guessed it would come to this…..

Seriously though, if you are a social networking user I am sure you have had someone say “that’s it! I am over it. I am leaving (insert social network name here).”
It may have even been yourself uttering those words and vowing to leave the fold.

Social networking is great and terrible both at the same time and is what I feel the internet is ultimately meant to deliver to us.

Social networks can bring us together, or make us feel lonely and unappreciated.
They allow us to highlight the fabulous things we do. But they also broadcast or failures and stupidity in speeds never before thought possible, to an audience beyond your imagining.

These networks goad us into wanting to be connected to others. To virtually scream “Look at me”.

And this same want to be part of the network can be a drug that, at times, you cannot stop.
You MUST update your status or play Zooville / Mafia wars, or the world will end!!

Disconnecting can be as beneficial as connecting and can often be the choice that, if taken, would have negated many issues we hear about on the web.
Many of the flame wars, twitter fights and facebook melees could have been stopped before they got ugly, just by putting down the mouse & backing away from the computer. That is not an easy thing to do though.

After all, that social network is all about YOU, isn’t it. People will take your side and back you unequivocally.
And YOU can say what you want to and no-one will want to put in their comment, because a fight in a public online space is private.
That is right, isn’t it?

No, of course it isn’t right.
So, if you are reading anything here that sounds familiar, I encourage you to handle Social networking situations in the way that I sometimes do.

Push back your chair, flip the bird to your computer screen and go for a short walk outside.
The internet will be there when you return – hopefully with your common sense reserves back at maximum.

By the way, if you do not know what “flip the bird” means, please enjoy this instructional video: