It’s a very easy admission - I am by no means an IT early adopter. If it were a foot race, I would clearly be back of the pack. But that said, I am a proud and regular Facebook user, collecting friends like blisters at the 10-kilometre mark.

And I must admit, some of my Facebook friends sometimes hurt a bit. The whole experience makes me wonder at what point does the collecting of contacts become simply numbing?

I recently was re-united with a dear, dear friend from university – too many years ago to mention - and I was grateful to Google, Facebook and the many other Internet applications that made it possible for us to re-establish our genuine friendship despite being oceans apart.

But this was an exception. More often than not, I cringe when I get a friend request from someone whose name I don’t recognise or whose image does not jog my high school memories of drinking Jack Daniels in the pitch of night on the local golf course.

Are we supposed to have the time or the inclination for this kind of online intrigue? Without guilt, I click ‘delete’.

I guess my fundamental beef is not at all against social media, but its easy access seems to invite the transmission of vacant, meaningless messages.

This frequent experience reinforces for me the basic tenet of communication – particularly when it comes to PR, pitches and press releases. What is my message? Is it consequential? Would the recipient be interested?

It may be far simpler now to reach out and communicate, but shouldn’t it be something of substance for anyone to take notice?

And as for all those old friends who are resurfacing online, I don’t mind collecting them like old runners kept in the back of the closet that I simply can’t throw away because of the memories – no matter how many new pairs I get.

- Christine Gotz

October 8th, 2008  |  by Christine Gotz Published in Online, Public Relations