Day 47

I think I'm finally starting to get it. Even though I was an early adopter of all things involving cyberspace, I've had a hard time understanding why Internet 2.0, or the Social Internet, as many people call it, was so important. Now I understand. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn...all these social networking sites; they're really just an extension of the Kevin Bacon Game. Let's say you have 24 connections on one of these sites. If you count "friends of friends" you immediately have 1800 connections. Start counting "friends of friends of friends" and all of the sudden you have over 200,000 connections. This is the whole "Six Degrees of Separation" theory. Everyone in the world is just six people away from knowing everyone else in the world.

It's all pretty intoxicating at first. Then you start to realize that even with all your fabulous Facebook friends, most of the telephone calls you receive are still from telemarketers. I wonder sometimes if living in an interconnected world makes any difference at all? It doesn't seem to make that much difference to me. I know I'm connected to something, but it doesn't seem real. I get e-mail every day asking me to do things. I do a little typing, upload a few files, scan a few pictures and send a reply e-mail that usually just says "Done!" I periodically get a check in the mail from these people, but I never see them anymore. They're all too busy answering their own e-mail.

We took our dogs to Unleashed again this afternoon like we do every Sunday. Dogs are more honest about everything. They have a much easier time staying connected. All they do is sniff butts.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day