Pinky on Social Networking

I am definitely suffering from sensory overload...Colleagues and friends of mine and I have been rabidly discussing the impact of social networking on our respective industries, familiy connections, and impact on the planet (these topics in no particular order of significance). Emerging from the threads and discussions of today are three thoughts of the evening:

1) Is social networking in the virtual world REALLY how we want to interact as humans? Although the transcendence of geograhpic and cultural barriers afforded by the virtual communities available to us is awesome, I wonder if, as I posted earlier on this blog, the anonymity that accompanies many of our presences really allows us to be less humane.

2) If we truly only use 10% of our brains, I assume that we could learn, through generations, to accomodate the phenomenal amount of information now available to us through the various on-line communities and discussions we join. However, at the moment, I feel as if I am becoming superficially conversant in a variety of topics rather than deeply passionate and expert in some. Is this a good or bad thing?

3) I, aging English/Poli Sci major that I am, find it amusing and a little disturbing how loosely we throw around terms to accomodate our grasp of technological change. I have heard the word metaphor applied to database design; social networking to on-line communities; and agnostic to applications that can integrate with various others.......Does anybody use dictionaries anymore or are we just grabbing the buzz words of the day and running with them? I, as precise as I try to be with my language am guilty of all of same as I try to express myself, but I am curious about how our misuse of the language may drive our misuse of the potential of the tools at hand....

Just a thought...