My friends and I have all been going back and forth about online social networking — how much information do we want online, how much to we really want to connect with old friends, how much time do we have to actually devote to it, how much spam can we stand, and who exactly do you maintain a profile for – what’s the purpose?

I, personally, have a public account on all the major social networks – myspace, facebook (for the last 7 years), linkedin, friendster (yes, unlike Michael I still have my friendster account) . This doesn’t include the crappy attempt at a social network that my college set up for alumni which breaks before I can ever complete my profile OR Flickr which could be considered a social network of sorts – especially considering some of the freaky things that happen on that site OR twitter.

I don’t create these account for anyone else and I don’t create them for self-promotion. After moving around a lot as a kid, moving to DC right after college, and changing jobs several times since I got here – I feel like these tools have allowed me to keep in touch or reconnect with folks that I may not have had a means to otherwise. Plus, I do need to have working knowledge of these tools for work, as well. I think that’s a big part of it for me — I had these accounts before anyone ever convinced me to do it. I didn’t create any of them for someone else. I also don’t spend any less time actually socializing in person with my friends because I have these accounts. Believe it or not, I have friends online and off. And no, I don’t connect with folks online that I haven’t met in person.

I convinced a friend recently to connect with me on Facebook only to find out that I was one of his two friends. Two friends? On Facebook? It seemed a bit weird to me I suppose. I didn’t question whether he was not cool enough to hang out (online or in person), but why instead he didn’t want to have a Facebook account until recently. Come to find out, he actually uses Friendster to keep up with his friends. One of the rare, the few, the brave, the ego-less who isn’t ashamed of using a crap-ass tool to keep in touch. Whatever works I suppose?!

For me, cost/benefit-wise I think it’s worth it – but I don’t spend too much time fussing with the sites. I connect with folks from one place instead of sending out 100 different emails or a mass email. I’m able to push and pull information all from one centralized location (mostly Facebook). And now, I also get to connect with organizations that I’m interested in there too – not in the same way – but at least it’s on the same “channel” of sorts.