Social networking defined

Well, Facebook has well and truly trounced MySpace and vindicated my long-held belief and carefully researched position that Facebook is better than MySpace.

Isn't Facebook great?!

You can form an instant relationship with someone you met minutes ago and gain an instant insight into their every thought, every photographed moment of their lives, every friend they have, and feel as though you have known them for years.

You can connect up with people you went to school with, with whom you had lost touch decades ago, but whom you no doubt would surely have maintained a close friendship with had you not forgotten they existed the minute you walked out the door on the last day of your final year.

You can "leverage" your social connections for thinly-veiled attempts to sell people things - perhaps your latest affiliate marketing venture, or your sorry "satirical Internet blog".

I have been gradually forming an all-encompassing definition of social networking. Perhaps it still needs some work but I think I am getting there:

ahem... *clears throat*

Social networking is a technology facilitating superficial relationships with the largest possible number of people.

Still needs work, any suggestions welcome. Oh, and no, you can't be my friend on Facebook. Unless you already are...