Tom – Good, and maybe scary, question. I have no idea. Figuring out how younger generations will go about this is well above my pay grade.

And thanks, because I feel slightly less alone in the way I use facebook…which is somewhat the way most do, but there’s no way I would want ALL of those people to have instant contact with me. I only have a few friends, but it’s mostly because it’s ingrained in my personality to not have the time for such things.

I do expect success to touch me again someday. I don’t want to miss the opportunity because I’m too busy checking Facebook for updates.

I’m going to put myself in your shoes and say that a girl came up to me and said she thought what I said on twitter was funny. If I were my average self minus the social persona, this is someone with whom I’d never have communication with. Being that I’m the one who makes available my social persona, the fact that someone actually took time out of their day to approach me and compliment me is actually super flattering. I mean, for what other purpose would I keep up with the twitter or the blog or facebook or whatever?

It’s not like I do anything memorable for a living where she’d come up and say, “man, I really love what you do as a chemist.” I’ll never be recognized for that.

What I think the point is is that, like you say in this article, meaningful relationships get diluted into what you are calling the insignificant. For example, my birthday. Pre 2003 (pre-myspace), you know how many phone calls I got wishing me happy birthday? 2, one from parents, one from my brother. This past year, I had over 75 facebook “friends” wishing me happy birthday. Do I think they meant it? Probably not, but unless they’re celebrating with you, isn’t the sentiment of “happy birthday” a small-talk item?

And I agree, we shouldn’t be relying on facebook to communicate with family and that people get carried away with things like facebook.

But I’d like to maintain that we are responsible for what we put out. If you enjoy being a blogger for the Times Union, and you have a twitter account that overlaps with that from time to time, people are going to recognize you for it. Rather than think that this is how you are defined as a person, I would hope that you think about it as somebody taking the time out of their day to not only hear you out but to also approach you and let you know that what you do, no matter how insignificant socially, is appreciated.