I’m not sure what’s come over me over the past week, but for whatever reason I was pushed closer and closer to do something that I said I would never do: I was close to joining Facebook. I know, I know, some of y’all are thinking “what’s the big deal?” That’s a good question, isn’t it? On principle, I don’t think I have anything wrong with the concept. I think it’s a great way to share pictures and reconnect with people that you haven’t been in touch with for a long time. In fact, it’s the sharing of pictures aspect that almost lured me in.

I know people have pictures of me on there–whether they be from recent races that I’ve participated in, or just candid shots from recent outings with friends. Of course, since I don’t have an account, I haven’t seen most of them. Only once in a while do I get some mercy and people would send me the photos, but I don’t want to impose myself and get people to spend so much more effort e-mailing me pics; I don’t want to inconvenience anyone. Now, as much as this picture thing kind of irks me, it hasn’t been enough to push me past the tipping point to getting an account. Yes, I’m curious, but really I’ve been fine without an account for this long, so will any of this really make a difference? I don’t think so.

As for the other aspect of reconnecting with people, that’s something that kind of makes me hesitate. There are certainly people out there from my past that I’m curious about, but is reconnection such a good thing? About a year ago, someone I knew was sort of complaining about all these friend requests from people that she barely talked to in high school or elementary. On the one hand, why would I want to connect with such people? On the other hand, it would sort of kill me to have to reject anyone. Yeah, I know that I can probably set privacy settings of sorts, but I fail to see the point of keep a low profile on a social networking site. I was also not so keen on pushing content about my life out to everyone on my friends list so easily. Oh, I’m sure there’s a setting to control that as well, but again, what’s the point?

So, wait a minute, how’s that different from blogging? I mean, sure, I’m presenting my life publicly on the ‘net for everyone to see. Well, see, the difference here is that people who want to know what’s going on with me can go here at their own leisure. So, I’m still maintaining that small bit of mystery that I claim as being part of my personality. With Facebook, you’re pushing your content out. Am I making sense here?

In my case, I think Twitter is sort of more up my alley. I mean, there have been a lot of times when I’ve wanted to post some quick thought or brain fart but didn’t want to create a new full blog entry to air out the thought. Twitter allows me to record and broadcast these thoughts. You’ll notice that I’ve added a Twitter widget to the sidebar. My recent tweets will appear in that list. I’m still sort of getting used to it, but so far it’s an interesting tool. If it’s something I’m likely to stick to, I might have to get an unlimited texting plan for my cell.

Aside: For a while, was wondering why the icon for Twitter was a Japanese “ヒ” in katakana. Obviously, it’s not a “hi” but a “t”. Duh.

God, this whole Web 2.0 thing is crazy. There are so many new-fangled things out there; it’s all quite interesting.