Normally, I would stay mum and not bother with a column like this. After all, we are all smart enough to ignore the inane and useless social networks. But no, oh no, the Yahoos, Googles and Microsofts of the world must throw in a social network or two of their own into the mix just to duke it out. It's so silly. I would say that a majority of sensible professionals are fairly content with LinkedIn, but according to Yahoo!, we now need a professional social network for upcoming professionals who are about to graduate with their shiny new degrees and are ready to rock and roll the corporate world. Seriously, Yahoo!, no wonder you are failing. Yeah, and that $25,000 award to the Alumni Program of the most actively involved college alumni isn't going to work. $25,000 is pocket change to schools that matter. Phew, get over yourself! Now, if you want to shell out $15B or so, then we can talk. Ouch! I bet that one still hurts, doesn't it?

Cell Phones: Jamming Your Way to Silence

Anyways, sorry, I got a little distracted with my bitterness. Back to the main point. As if Yahoo's Y! Kickstart isn't enough, there's an entire social network dedicated to Kylie Minogue. I get the fan base and loyalty or what have you, but a social network for a celebrity? Let's bring on a social network for Britney Spears, too, while we are at. Apparently none of us have much to do offline, you know, in our real lives, that our method of interaction and enjoyment is joining a bazillion social networks and repeat the same junk over and again. Post the same pictures on a thousand different networks, send wall-to-wall messages (whatever happened to instant gratification of making calls or text messaging?) and stalk each other. Yep, she's definitely going to reveal more about herself on one of the bazillion social networks.

The fine idea of social networking was to connect with and stay in touch with people whom you've met and interacted with before. It's a way to never lose their contact information, but the premise is to ultimately have a face-to-face interaction to solidify and give a deeper meaning to relationships. If you are going to spend your entire evening hopping from one social network to another, I don't see how you are going to make plans to attend events, go out to lunches/dinners and develop a human-to-human connection with someone offline. The lines of basic human connections are blurring, and they are getting overtaken by a bunch of social networks. The world must be coming to an end.

Seriously, people, stick with Facebook and LinkedIn, join a few of your favorite niche social news sites, and don't spend your entire life in front of the computer managing profiles, usernames, passwords and a host of other nonsensical bits of information. And to the companies who are taking such calculated risks, forget it. There is no way you are succeeding, and until you can convince my friends to join, I'm not coming over. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you, but it's a must-have for those of us who are bombarded with messages all day long. And to my friends who are reading this, I would appreciate a quick text message or a phone call every so often, instead of Facebook messages. Give me a call, and we'll go grab dinner.

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