Social Networking or Social Necessity?

Supposedly, social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the like make it easier for people to stay connected with their friends; they provide additional means of communication. According to this recent article from the Washington Post, however, social "networking" has now become a social MUST. The article details the stories of several young people without such connections and the severe social ramifications of that. Not having a Facebook or MySpace account makes you, as a modern adolescent--GASP--different than 85 percent of your Millennial peers. People may shun you because you are oh-so unconnected. You may be ostracized. You may be teased. Or people may think you have extreme fundamental opposition (moral or otherwise) to such sites.

Sheesh. It sounds like we are talking about a momentous political issue. Like infinite youth trends before it, the use of social networking sites (or, more specifically, the lack thereof) serves as another way for young people to be ostracized. The irony is striking: some people think you can't be real friends if you're not "friends" on Facebook. And what kind of friend is that? I for one would much prefer my best friend, who--OH NO!--does NOT have a Facebook account at my bedside in the hospital if I were in a car crash than one of my Facebook "friends" who I haven't spoken with in years or didn't know all that well to begin with. But maybe that's just me. Hopefully, social networking doesn't become merely another form of exclusion...there are already too many forms in today's society.