In looking back at the last year, and reflecting (more on that later), I've come to a conclusion:
Far too many social networks are sucking up way too much of my time. I give up.
I'm certainly not in the 1000s of "friends" (or whatever) on MySpace, Facebook, etc., but the volume of invitations, pokes, and related stuff is simply too much, so I'm resolving to consign all invitations to new social networking sites to /dev/null. Heck, I may even do that with additional invitations and connections on existing sites. I see freedom just ahead....
Now, there are a few advantages to these sites--I've reengaged with several old friends and acquaintances that I might not have connected with had it not been for various social networks, but then again, I've also not sent thoughtful letters or emails to a whole lot of friends and family that I neglect. Hmmm.
While I'm at it, maybe I should give up on other time wasters. Let's see...as I write this blog entry, the Today show blaring in the background, we're on the third day of "tiger kills human" analysis, complete with insightful questions like "are you sure the tiger cannot jump out?" Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated about an hour ago, yet that hasn't even been mentioned. Good use of time? I think not.
Likewise, my Google Reader is overflowing with feeds and items that are arguably interesting...but not necessarily more valuable than the things that I'd be not doing while reading them. Looks like there's more housecleaning to be done there.
Well, I still have a week or so to finish up my resolutions, but this looks like a great place to start.