I grew up in the 90s meeting people in bars and parties. These days, much of the socializing is done online, through Facebook, blogs, forums and other virtual communities. I’ve counted my FB friends (1,500 or so of them) and realized that 70 per cent of them I wouldn’t recognize if I met them on the street. Then it dawns on me that I’ve been spending most of my time facing dear lappy in the bedroom. The friend I used to have coffee with in 1999 is now the friend who sold me a cookie cutter in Multiply, chatted with me after a webinar or added me as a pal on Foursquare.

Frankly, I see nothing wrong with this increasingly virtual world we’re in. Juggling work, blogging, family and more work (!!) is no easy task, and that is why it is a better idea to drop me a line on Windows Messenger than let me brave the traffic or ride the train for a short tete-a-tete. But I have to admit all this social networking stuff can sometimes be overwhelming.

Mind you, things happen online like they do in the real world. It’s easy to be distracted by who’s gossiping about who, who’s raising hell about what and all those strange friend requests you sometimes see. There’s definitely a need to organize and achieve balance if we’re able to make good use of our time in in the internetz.

That’s why am all for this site called Save Social Energy. Basically, this movement is pinned on the premise that we must use our time on the social networks more efficiently. As online denizens, we are “exposed to a lot of clutter and can end up missing on the conversations that are truly important.”

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