Keeping up with accounts and profiles we have online can be exhausting! Think about it, how many times do you check them? How many sites do we need to really participate in? Personally, I participate or have an active account with: topsin, Facebook, MySpace, flickr, Twitter, yahoo! messenger, Chatroulette, MilitarySingles, Skype and my blog (just to name a few). Yet, many of these sites I no longer visit. I guess I choose to keep these sites activated because I may want to use them again, and making a new account would just be a hassle and who wants that?
Think for a minute, how many sites are you a member and visit daily, weekly or monthly? If I were to actually visit all the sites I participate or am a member of on a daily basis, I would not have a "real" life to intertwine with my virtual life. My virtual life would be my only life! This example is a bit over dramatic, okay it is overly dramatic. However, I have friends that have chosen not to have a virtual life, but only a "real" life. I guess that seems overly dramatic too. Separating "real" life and virtual life in this day and age, and I think you can agree, is ridiculous. If we did separate the two I think both worlds would lack. It's hard not to have a conversation without bringing one into the other.
If you are a user of Facebook, then you will understand when I say that more and more people choose to take a break by deleting their facebook account. The best thing about it too is that they can reactivate their account. This allows them not to completely separate themselves from virtual life. Whether you have done this, know someone who has or someone who has chosen not to have an accounts on social networks, it is hard not to visit these sites.
I have a friend who chooses not have accounts on social networks, yet because of the vast distance between him and me, social networks help him to stay in touch with what is going on in my life. For instance, when I post or upload something to my social network that I want him to see, I have to go to my settings and make my profile public. This allows him to look at my profile in its entirety even though he is not a member of the site. Even for my friend who strongly opposes the use of social networks finds himself pulled into my virtual life. Sooner or later my friend, and I strongly agree, will have an account on a social network sometime in his lifetime. Even, though he can view my post without joining, it's not the same as participating and being a member of a social network.
I do not know if you have experienced something similar to this and can relate, if anything I hope you can understand and see that whether we like it or not, "real" life and virtual life will be intertwined forever more.
For next weeks blog I will touch on things we use the internet for such as: education, defensive driving and more.
Too wrap it all up I will review my previous blogs and highlight the key points.
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