I'm the type of person who can get along with just about anybody. Even if I don't necessarily like someone, I can be cordial and speak with them in a respectful manner. I realize that you can not always choose the people you interact with in RL, such as bosses, professors, or even a cashier at the local supermarket. All of this changes online. You can pick and choose who can see your profile, who to "friend" and who to interact with. You can become the master of your own universe and allow only those worthy of your affections to gain entrance. This can be a very good thing, because some people become more open once they have established their preferred level of privacy online. It can also serve to make people more isolated and withdrawn, focusing more attention on their online persona than their RL personality.
While some people can boast hundreds of thousands of friends, others, like myself, have too few friends for a "top 8". I do not use my social network of choice, myspace, to do much socializing. I tend to use it more as a place to update those who I spend less time with in RL on current events. I have friends who I haven't seen in years that only get a glimpse of me when I update my photo albums. While there are people who search for groups to join or become a part of blog circles, others choose to only communicate with people they have already established RL connections to.
Some people also use social networks for self promotion. I have a friend who joined myspace to showcase his music production abilities. Within days he had several hundred hits and a couple of months later had requests for beats and gigs lined up all over the region. He used this networking tool to share his music as well as secure supplemental income. He met a great deal of people from the site in RL and got connections in the music business. He also joined a psychic network and does tarot readings thanks to a fan who also frequents the site. His use of myspace helped him to have a much broader audience for his craft, develop a newfound talent, and earn more than $1500 in supplemental income each month.
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Tami, I really enjoyed your post...what I find interesting is that use and discussion of tools like Facebook and MySpace are generally discussed as expanding our social world through networks that purportedly develop more friendships than one would have offline; however, Neville's article proposes the idea that these social networks, simply aid in further solidifying connections that are already established rather than create opportunities to increase one's "inner circle." Although one may have more "friends" on Facebook it is not synonymous with engaging in social behavior. It seems to be more of a self-promotion tool whether it is to appear cool or popular, or to self-advertise for employment/work goals.
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