Social networking is not for me, or is it?
Some time ago I started this blog mostly to have my own corner on the Internet where I could unrestrictedly publish whatever was on my mind for whoever may ever find it useful. Part of this was acknowledging that I’ve killed the narcissistic side many years ago and I simply loathe the idea of spilling my beans every half an hour on a public diary. I could just not go with “me me me me me me” all day long, as if I was some sort of superstar of the world searching for my spotlight. Obviously, I didn’t make a splash into the blogosphere either; I skim through some blogs of interest once every few weeks, rarely comment and almost never link back.
Not only does it make me an oddity among bloggers, but also reveals that social networking is definitely not one of my finest traits.
This stood out even more clearly when I joined LinkedIn and Facebook a couple of weeks back. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with those accounts, no interest in updating my status every 20 minutes on Facebook and definitely not going to spend my time searching for everybody I know to add them there.
I basically ditched LinkedIn a few hours after signing up. I’m still tolerating Facebook for the single reason that I can scratch the surface on a bit more personal level with some people in the Company. They interest me, and if I want to work better with them then I should start knowing better the person behind the professional.
So here I am, hating every word of a post that goes on and on about me, writing something that will probably not be read, and wondering if I will ever understand what’s so hot about being on hi5, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo! 360 and so on.
Stripping away all the personal issues above, the bare question is revealed: if social networking does not appeal to everybody, how could one still benefit from it in other ways than the obvious?
[edit] Lewis Green at Marketing Profs Daily Fix hinted a week ago what’s better than virtual relationships. Check out the comments too — looks like I’m not alone! 
