On the topic of social networks

I have a facebook account. My wife has a myspace account. One might argue that we should both either an account with facebook or myspace. Or, barring that agreement, have dual accounts. I disagree. A few months ago, shortly after an old friend invited me to join facebook, I had the luxury of sitting through jury duty. While waiting for my number to get called, I had the opportunity to stare at the ceiling and watch the paint peel. Alas, it was a well maintained building, and a lack of entropy in my surroundings left me to my own thoughts. It's stuff that shows up in places like that that will end up tarring the whitespace of this blog screen.
I began to consider the value proposition of social networks. I'd recently read an article on the topic of etiquette in these realms. Friendships in the real world were getting hurt by these sites. "But why?!" you might ask, "Are friends using a website to talk to each other when they can just talk to each other?" That's when it hit me. Social networks exist for the sake of distant friends and acquaintances. One of the things that discourages me from calling up old friends to chew the fat, as we once did, is the fact that we must first catch up on all that has happened. That could take hours, maybe months! What's more, you're going to have to do it every time you call up some other old acquaintance. Social networks free you of this responsibility! You want to catch up? Read their posts. Where are they living? Read their background. That way, the nature of your relationships with distant friends does not change as much. You really can chew the fat as you once did.
Do not, however, add people that you see daily to your network. This service is not intended for them. A social network is a band-aid to allow friends who don't have the luxury of seeing each other daily the opportunity to keep up without the heavy maintenance. They don't need to read about your day, they were already there! You cannot wax nostalgic over something that happened two hours ago. It's not the good ole' times if it's still going on.
That is why my wife browses myspace, and I browse facebook.
That, and we're too lazy to create more pages. It's hard enough updating just one.