“Eagle-Eyes” believes this title will get the trio (Me, Myself & I) in trouble with our regular readers. First, our apologies for not posting more thoughts under the category title,“Our Information Highway.“ Since last July we have been spending so much time traveling along this electronic highway (remember that PetalumaNet was initiated in 1995), that we forgot how to communicate and relate with people face-to-face (f-t-f.)

Over the past 13 years, Our CyberSpace and Our CyberPlace have seen many new applications and ways to stay in touch with each other electronically. One of these new trends has been labeled “social-networking.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –

“A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex.” (Not to be confused with social network services.)

Let’s not get caught up in semantics. Guess what? “Me” signed up with Facebook, “Myself” selected MySpace, and “I” joined LinkedIn. Much to our surprise, messages from both friends and strangers started to arrive, asking us to join their “social network.” To make the long story short, enough was enough – stop- we wanted out!

Too much time was consumed with “staying in touch” and “connecting with friends,” theirwas very little time left to focus on the community issues, concerns, and causes that would make a difference in the lives of these friends. When you join someone’s network, you become a “friend.” When you decline to join or drop out, you “unfriend” them and that’s undiplomatic. Let’s keep it simple. If you want to be “friends” with me, let’s meet f-t-f. (of course we can use e-mail or the phone to arrange the get-together.) F-t-f meetings ad conversations are of a higher quality and create longer lasting fiendships. Since Hammerhead is an octogenarian, he believes these thoughts really hit the nail on the head.