Online Connections

Work was slow today. Everyone seems to be on Christmas vacation except me. I felt like I just had to go to the office to clean up my Inbox and force myself to be productive. I know I'll be bored soon. So I brought my usual artillery of books, laptop and wireless modem.

On my way to work, I decided that as soon as I get to the office and finish attending to work, I'll catch up on various research and clean up my online networking sites. It's something that's been egging in my extra-curricular task list. Some of my sites are so outdated and some sites have lost its connection with me.

When I look back, I never found any reason to join the social networking site. The point of joining these sites is to become more connected and sociable. Well, I'm not that sociable so that dispels the entire need. But one weekend I had to go to my office to finish something quick. I brought Tin Lucero with me, a dear friend from High School. We planned to go malling right after, and while waiting, Tin got bored and wanted to check her Friendster site. I had already heard of Friendster and I thought that the site was ridiculous. She even insisted that I make one, but I wasn't feeling it. Against my discouragement, she still made an account for me without my consent; and testimonials and contacts started to pour in. Most of my friends in college already had their profiles and they were surprised to see that I made one too. So they got shocked that I finally joined the bandwagon. It took me months to get used to this site. I found it very amusing and annoying at the same time until I took full control. From Friendster, I jumped to Multiply until I found the next best thing for me, which is blogging and then I joined one of the best social networking sites invented, Facebook.

My relationship with my social networking sites gradually got stronger in a sense that I take it seriously and personally. Whatever I post there is an honest clip of my life. It's not an entire version of me, but one piece of truthfulness I'm willing to share to friends and practical strangers. I don't build my sites to gain popularity. I build these sites for my own entertainment and to get connected with people that I can never do in person. I get stressed with personal interactions, online interactions is better most of the times. Here I am in full control.

With all the things that's been happening, social networking sites can demand a lot of my time. Aside from personal emails and work, I have to check who's flagging me, who's trying to reach out and some updates that I might have missed. In this day and age, information is readily available, I dare not miss it. Due to the busy streak, I might have forgotten to update my sites, so that's what I plan to do today. This is in a way, being productive, while having fun.

Although there is one site that I have to officially and finally let go.

Friendster

Friendster is no longer "alive." My account is still there, but it froze. All the pictures and information are now in Facebook. I no longer visit that site and frankly I don't remember my log-in details anymore.

Multiply

I started this site in 2006. I started blogging here first. I decided to maintain this site, because it is still fun to manage. It's user-friendly and keeps things more organized as this serves as my online hard drive.

Multiply has also evolved into this online business hub. I've had transactions here with different sellers and I love the convenience it brings!

Blogger

Mitch introduced this to me and I haven't stopped since. I love writing and I found a good avenue to do that. It took me years to be more courageous about my posts. Since I'll be sharing my personal ideas about everything, I have to be comfortable. I've always stood on integrity anyways and as long as I am having fun by being real about it, then this site will always be alive.

Facebook

Ah, Facebook. I won't be surprised if everybody has Facebook. You chat in Facebook, share pictures with Facebook and congregate people using Facebook. This has become a revolutionized social networking site. If you want to know the juicy details of your friends, go to their Facebook accounts. Finding long lost friends and acquaintances is easier in Facebook than in Multiply or Friendster. This site also allows you to do lots of applications like quizzes, random status generation and interactive games. No wonder this beat Friendster big time.

IM accounts

I have YM, but I rarely log in, as in once in a blue moon. If I need information fast, I text or call. I don't necessarily go to CHAT to socialize.


Since I've cleaned up and updated my multiply and blogger sites yesterday, I can now focus on the brighter picture like welcoming a grand and steadfast 2010. I hope I can share more and better stories for the coming year. Now, I'm fully prepared!