In this social-networking age that we live in, it's amazing that between my various social pages I have hundreds of friends yet I don't think I've ever felt more alone.  Could it be the artificial nature of these internet friends is spilling over into our real friendships?

I worked on cruise ships for a number of years and many of those "friendships" were artificial as well.  Because we were "stuck" with people for 6 to 8 months of our lives we hung out with people we probably wouldn't have hung out with on dry land.  I found that those rare occasions during my seven ship contracts that I did make a real friend, my only connection to them was often through Myspace or Facebook once our contracts ended.  It's so easy to let the social networks be our only way of maintaining our friendships.  My 300+ Myspace friends are not all people that I'm intimately associated with, but many of them are and I feel bad that I don't make more of an effort to call them or to meet up with them for that face to face exchange.  Though Facebook keeps me connected to my "ship" friends when they're at sea, I have no excuse for not calling or visiting when I know they're home.

I'm a first-time homebuyer and I find that neighborhoods are so different than the way they were when I was growing up.  Back in the day not only did you know practically everyone on your block, you also knew most of the people on the surrounding blocks.  Where's the sense of neighborliness?  My fear is that the unattached nature of social network friendships is infiltrating other areas of our lives.  For instance, I just started working a temporary job and I have to admit, it's been a while since I worked in an office environment.  What I'm noticing is that people don't "hang around the water cooler" and chat anymore.  In fact, my temporary co-workers often walk right past me without even speaking.  I'm looking at them to make eye contact and nothing.  It's hard not to fall into that same pattern.  Granted, with my ship training I speak to everybody which I'm sure seems strange to people nowadays 'cause that's not the norm.  But when you see the same people every week day and don't make an effort to at least be "friendly" I start to wonder what's happening to us as a people.

So, here's my question … are the social networks in fact making us less social?

Would love to hear what you think.