Faceless

Taxi!

Social networking is the buzzword of the times.
Everyone's connected to everyone else through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo and many other networking sites too numerous to list.

Sure, these websites may add value by allowing us to keep tabs on our friends and acquaintances, but they're no substitute for old-fashioned face to face meetings. When you see someone in person, communication is much more complete as you see their facial expressions and body language as well, which make up much of a message.

Sometimes I think people spend way too much time on Facebook grooming their virtual pets, updating their status or superpoking everyone. I admit, it's fun in the beginning, but after a while it gets old. In the interest of full disclosure, I too was caught up in the "25 Random Things About You" tsunami of note creating on Facebook, but other than that I try to limit my time on that site and instead try to focus going to "real" events where I see real people.

Off topic, BTW, yesterday I wrote about the lack of volunteer opportunities for me and then as if someone overheard me, the Wall Street Journal published an article about organizations that can match you up with volunteer organizations. The article listed volunteermatch.org, idealist.org, usaservice.org and 1-800-volunteer.org. I knew about volunteermatch, but not the others.

I found this perfect volunteer opportunity for me. It deals with translating German articles into English every other week, so that Americans can have access to international articles although they may not speak that language. The website is called Watching America. It will force me to read more German and also make sure I understand all of the content as I translate it. Perfekt!