Social Networking Rant

Since most of us (in our generation) have had an online prescence for the past 10 years, we have managed to leave a trail of breadcrumbs on the internet, which search engines conveniently pick up and associate back to us. I often wonder about lack of privacy and personal space in this day and age. To borrow from Omid Kordestani's commencement speech at San Jose State University, "If you know a girls name, you can google her up to find out what she's been doing in her life, look her up on orkut or facebook or myspace to see what she looks like, to find out her preferences and what her friends have been saying about her. You can then check her out on linkedin to find out what she has been upto on a career front and when you finally hook up on the first date you pretty much have nothing left to ask! ". It probably is good in a way to know what you are getting into, ( on the flip side, isn't it a much more romantic endeavor to get to know a person of the opposite sex, in person?) . Social Networking sites force us to stay relevant in life, since we are under the online spotlight all the time. I personally feel, it is good and bad in a way because there is a a lot of self similarity in the way human emotions work. We have our occasional larval phases insterspersed between our Social butterfly intervals. Social Networking sites help us stay relevant during our larval phases. At a whole different level, this is a dream for marketing folks, because based on my social profile, my age and other demographics and my likes and dislikes they can target advertisements to me. Well the bottom line, its a whole new online ecosystem and it does implore us to protect our privacy and preferences. So much for blogging :)