Social networking is among the many things, like identity theft and
pop-up advertising, made simpler and easier by modern digital
technology. It is not that we didn't meet people or stay in
touch with friends and family before the internet connected us all
to spam and Youtube. But with all this new connectivity, even
staying in touch with people and meeting new people has been
streamlined and systematized, and made almost instantaneous and
compulsive. The trouble is that with Facebook, Myspace,
Twitter, and all the other networks, being privy at all times to
our connections' many thoughts, moods, exclamations, whims,
concerns, causes, photos, home videos, humors, disappointments, and
the other detritus of the human endeavor can be vexing and
overwhelming to say the least.
Sometimes receiving an update a minute about the state of mind
of the cousin of the woman who was college roommates with the
girlfriend of the guy with whom you formed a punk band briefly in
the 80s can put us to the saturation point of digital
connectedness. Today's Deedlecast speaks to the facebook
frustration phenomenon.