social networking and privacy

Honestly, I’m just going to categorize myself as one of those “facebook whores”.  I’m constantly checking my facebook for updates on friends, news, music, etc.  In a way, I kind of depend on facebook to keep me in check with my social world.  It’s somewhat difficult to keep track of how much time I really spend on facebook because my hands automatically lead me to my facebook homepage without my awareness.  Let’s just say that half of the time I’m on my computer, I’m on facebook.  The same kind of goes for twitter except I think I slowed down on that one.  I used to update my status regularly until I realized that my audience was kind of pathetic in size.  I feel like twitter’s popularity depends on the audience.  If you’re a huge celebrity and you know that your fans are anxiously waiting for your updates, then you’re more likely to use twitter on a daily basis.  However if you know your audience isn’t that big, then what is the point of constantly updating an invisible crowd?  But idk, I guess other people may have a different opinion on this.  Twitter is nice though when it comes to being in the loop on special deals from your favorite stores or exclusive sales that only tweeters are aware of. 
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When it comes to using my phone to check updates, I don’t do this too often.  My cell phone battery life is pretty depressing due to the fact that if I just go on facebook once, half my battery is gone.  Although I do get facebook updates via text messages.  I think it’s pretty useful for facebook to have that application so that I’m updated 24/7.  Texting however, is a different story.  I’m literally always texting.  I think I’d actually prefer to text someone than to call someone because texting is like an impersonal way of communicating.  For instance, if I’m mad at a friend than I’d rather just text him/her so that my feelings don’t come off as strong and I have time to think through the situation.  The same goes for social networking in general.  Face to face time is the most personal form of interaction and so social networking is great for keeping distance, but yet remaining in contact.  Personally, I like the cultural move towards social networking and now that I’ve gotten a taste of it, I can’t picture my world without it.  Yeah there are a lot of privacy issues, but that’s when you have to tell yourself to be mindful of your audience.  If you’re going to post your location or thoughts you should probably keep to yourself, then just be aware of the consequences it may come with.  I mean, I do think facebook needs to change their location application and allow people the option to reject being tagged in a certain location by their friends.  Other than that, it’s pretty much up to you to decide how much you want to share (unless I don’t know about any other inevitable privacy issues).  I’ve dealt with being bitched out many times because I’ve posted something stupid on facebook.  I used to always update my statuses with provocative phrases such as “fuck school! Or homework can kiss my ass” only to be bombarded with comments from my family members such as “stop wasting your parent’s money and keep studying”.  Of course I worry about my privacy issues, but if I really didn’t want people to know about something, then I wouldn’t post it.  Facebook is a place to express your feelings as well as yourself, but as always, “if you don’t have anything good to say, then it’s better off not saying it at all”.