Another One? Do We Really Need This?

Do we really need another social networking site?

What the hell? Sure, there's money in social networking, but just how social can people be online? Think about it. If people are spending their day sending Facebook updates, posting on MySpace, checking their Orkut contacts, Twittering their fingers off, Powncing on their friends, sitting at Bebo, or Mashing things up, when will they have time for face to face communication with people?

Heck, I love social networking and all the technology that goes along with it, but aren't we losing touch with one of the very things that makes us what we are?

When was the last time you chatted with the clerk at the corner store? Have you ever had a conversation with the guy at the dry cleaners? Didn't your mom warn you about talking to strangers?

How long has it been since you talked with your next door neighbor? Do you even know your neighbor's name? Do you even want to know his name? If not, why are you inviting 4,000 people to follow you on Twitter? He may be one of those 4,000 people you know.

Social networking online is not a bad thing as long you balance it with social networking with people face to face sometime.

Yahoo Inc. is testing an experimental social network service called Mash that makes it easy for Yahoo users to share tidbits of their lives with friends and family online, the company said on Sunday.

Mash, to which a limited number of public users began being invited as testers on Friday, was described by a spokeswoman as a new, next-generation service that is independent from the company's 2- year-old Yahoo 360 degree profile service.

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Mash amounts to a new stab at competing with the likes of News Corp's MySpace, Facebook, Bebo or Google's Orkut, which have attracted tens of millions of users worldwide.

Sorry Yahoo, I just don't have time for yet another social networking site. Good luck though.

Cross posted at The Alligator Pit.