Is joining social networks inevitable to keep in touch with friends these days, even if they live nearby?

Do an experiment. Inactivate your accounts and see what happens.

I don’t use Facebook except very rarely. I use gmail for email and chat and videochat purposes. But there are only three people I chat with regularly. I use the phone, too, but as little as possible. I mostly use the phone for business and the people I care about the most.

Entertainment? Well, books and news and blogs and TV should suffice. You do not need to access those in a social networking way.

I’m not fond of “social grooming” kinds of connections with people. I like my connections either to be very deep or businesslike. I’m not good at acquaintanceship. I don’t have the patience. I want to know what’s really going on, or I don’t want to be bothered.

No, not at all. It just requires more effort/

No it’s not inevitable. But for younger people it maybe. To a young brain, it will not be easy to go the other way, not to join the horde of trend fanatics. Two years ago, I limited my Facebook visits to once a week, sometimes less. When I want to say hi to a friend or relative, I call to hear their voices on the phone.

Text messaging seems like it’s on the rise. If you have a cell phone, that might be all you need.

Well, I’m 17, so I guess I probably count as ’‘younger people’’ ;) Just one of the things I dislike about facebook is the fact that I don’t completely decide who’s posts I see or don’t see. I could text or phone my friends, of course, but many friends don’t text to keep their mobile phones bills low, and I get really anxious on the telephone…I guess in a way these networks are fantastic for me I just hate it when they seem to take everything over and they are everything people talk about….and even if you meet friends face to face, some people constantly check their facebook——pretty annoying, I think… I think going online less is a good way to go….important people come around anyway if they start missing you ;) Thanks !

On Facebook, you should be able to hide people (or certain updates) from your news feed. ^_^

Doing that already-but if I don’t want to hide a person entirely, I still have to see their updates before I can hide those…..

I’m not sure about the timeline, but on the layout before you could choose only specific updates to get updates on. So, if you’re sick of getting “game updates”, for example, you could hide those. Have you taken advantage of being able to do that?

After an expected death in our family last week, I was asked to track down a missing cousin. I found her on FB., asked the right questions, and we were able to connect quickly. She was saddened but grateful to have learned the news sooner rather than later.

I also got a free White Pages site from @XOIIO which supplied me with her home phone. So that was a good fall-back position.

@gailcalled I’m sorry to hear that :( ......but yes, when you are looking for someone facebook and so on are often helpful… and @AnonymousGirl – I have…with many of my facebook contacts…. ;) Well, thanks for all your advice and descriptions of your own networking behaviour everyone :)

I have a neighbor in my FB and it’s way easier to keep in touch with her that way than to call her. I don’t feel like we’re friendly enough to have a phone call, and I don’t have that much in common with her that I would feel comfortable calling unless there was a specific topic to discuss. I would not call her just to chat. However, I will pm her on FB or email her to say hi and ask how she’s doing. It seems way easier on FB or email than on a regular phone call.

Keep in touch at all? No. Keep in touch, in that really close way, where you talk about small things for hours? Yes.

For some of my friends it is. We live in different states now and several of us work the equivalent of two jobs so calling on the phone is almost sure to guarantee we’re interrupting each other at work or precious alone-at-home time. We mostly text and then use fb for posting pics of life happening, going by. Even with a friend who lives just a few blocks away, we text or use fb because she works as much as I do and is also newly married.

I keep my Facebook page just to communicate with a very few people. Every once in a while I think about deleting it and maybe starting another with a name that is not my own. I might do it yet.

Fluther is about as “social” as I want to get.

I remember a good friend of mine calling me on the phone a few months ago, and my first thought (since she is on my FB) is “Why is she calling me?”

I haven’t found it necessary, although I am told by other family members that I’m not getting the news I could be getting. I do often complain that nobody ever tells me anything.

I don’t bother with that many people anymore but I still keep in touch by phone, letters or emails. Social networking just isn’t my thing.