Thursday, September 13, 2012

When I crossed the 500-mark on LinkedIn a few months ago, I wasn’t sure whether my disposition toward social media would catapult to highs unknown. Would I discover a proverbial burning bush and recant my previous thoughts on the matter? Perhaps I would command power, unimaginable power, siphoned from the hundreds of souls tied to my profile. Would ticker tape descend majestically from the ceiling? Would someone send me a t-shirt? An e-card, at least?

Nothing happened, as you can imagine. I felt a sense of relief, mainly–freedom from having one less site to check regularly. It was like I had weaned myself off the online rat race. Even if LinkedIn raised the public count to, say, 1,000, it wouldn’t be enough to bring me back. I like logging in once or twice a month, max, to entertain the stray invitations that drop into my inbox. Previously I had portrayed LinkedIn as a kind of Rolodex, but I seldom use it in such a capacity. You know how in war and disaster movies there’s always a wooden bulletin board near the docks, on which friends and family tack letters to find each other? It’s more like that.

Social media aside, I may succumb to my other technological holdout–smartphones–in short order. There is a serious dearth of flip phones available through Verizon, and my Casio Boulder is on its last legs, after serving a heroic two-and-a-half-year tour of duty. But more on that later. I need to catch up on sleep in anticipation for this weekend, which will be packed with shooting of the gun and golf variety. These activities will occur independently of each other, to be clear.