Am I too old already?

Recently a friend of mine said I could follow him on twitter. I asked 'Why twitter? Can't we simply do IM or email?', and then we had a brief discussion about how twitter is great; and I suddenly started feeling a little left out. Being a techie, I would love to check this thing out (although it has been two years since it launched); and so I did.

All it asked me to enter is 'what's happening?'. Well... nothing is happening. I am doing all my regular chores sitting in the campus room.

Long pause.

Now what?

If I post something, who looks at it?

If someone actually looks at what I post, if at all someone does, the big question is - "WHY?".
Why would someone look at what I am doing? Am I a celebrity?
Hell no.
Do I want to be?
Maybe.
Do I want to live the life of a celebrity while I am not?
Probably not.
Is it made just to make the participant feel that he/she is important? Interesting? Sought-after?
Looks like. Everyone is just becoming an exhibitionist, bragging about their exceptional life. Don't you respect your own privacy yourself?

Why would I be interested in finding out whether some guy in France yelled at a street ped? What business do I have with you not brushing your teeth? If you lost your job, shouldn't you be looking out for another one, instead of 'tweeting' about it?

Am I too old-generation to understand the social importance of twitter?
Probably.

I simply do not get the point of twitter.

Another new trend that irks me is the proliferation of so-called social networking sites.
Why would I want to waste my time sifting through the hundreds of status changes my friends post throughout the day? Worse - comment on them, and re-comment?
Why would I want to look at the daily horoscope of a person who is more of an acquaintance than a friend?
Then again, with the rise of these social networking sites, the distinction between friend and acquaintance is hazy.
Why would I waste time answering stupid questions in a quiz that promises to tell me the date of my marriage, or my cartoon avatar, or which Greek God I am?
Why would I play an online game and post stats on my page, and challenge my friends to beat me? There are better online gaming sites, with many more and much more challenging games (trust me). If I want to prove myself at gaming, I would play games on the serious gaming sites.
Why would I waste time answering dumb questions like 'why would your friend xyz be stopped at an airport security post'?
And what about my privacy? Privacy from spies, acquaintances who might make a mess by posting something I do not want my potential girlfriend to know?
I've heard that facebook can be addictive if overdone.

I simply don't get the point of using facebook/myspace/orkut.

Why would I join my colleagues from work, classmates, and ask them to write recommendations for me?
That too on a site which I can not even put on my resume. Why should I give my academic and professional background/history to a company which I barely know, just because all my friends and collogues have done it already and they send me tens of mails every day asking me to join?
Who reads it? Do recruiters actually look at my profile? They search for me? Maybe they really do, but ... Why? If I am looking for a job, shouldn't it be me who is looking out for companies and applying with a nicely tailored resume? The only scenario where LinkedIn makes sense is when you want business connections. That too, can be achieved using yellow pages.

I simply don't get the point of using LinkedIn.



I hear you -

Where do I share interesting links with my friends?
How about Digg/stumbleupon/delicious?

Where do I share photos/videos?
How about Picasa/flickr or countless other sharing sites?

How do I let my Mom know what I did today?
How about writing her a mail/IM? Even better, call her!

How do I let my co-workers know the status of an interesting project I am working on?
Blog about it.

Where do I find business?
If someone can't make it to the Yellow pages, they probably aren't doing good anyway.

Again, I do not get the point of all these sites.

Am I too old already?