They will count it down in Times Square, they will samba en mass along Copacabana Beach in Rio.  I just say, hurry up 2009!

After a chaotic 2008 that has the U.S. economy on the brink of a depression, 2009 surely can’t get any worse…can it?

Sure we had some bright spots in 2008.  Michael Phelps historic Olympic feat and of course the historic election that will place Barack Obama in the White House in about 20 days were all memorable moments.  However, the unemployment, bankruptcies, foreclosures, bailouts and deficits will forever be tattooed to 2008.

2009 will be a rebuilding year and like in sports, it won’t be pretty.  But, the Bush administration will be gone!  Hopefully the Iraqi War can be wound down and by this time next year our financial health will be improving.  It won’t be pretty and more casualties are sure to result, but like those rebuilding sports team, at least the ugliest season is over.

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 I’ve been using computers since before the “World Wide Web” had graphics!  14.4k modems were a “privilege”.  Dialing in to Prodigy or CompuServe was the coolest thing ever.

In a short time the Internet has evolved and exploded into ever facet of our lives.  One of the most popular sectors is in social media.  This blog would be considered part of the social media arena.  There are millions of blogs in cyberspace. Most are admittedly more popular than this one, but each have something to say and each has someone that reads what is said.

I never got the MySpace bug.  I assume it was after my time age wise.  I recently signed up for Facebook just to check out my 16 year old son’s page and lo and behold, my best friend’s sister from high school contacted me from across the country.  We exchanged a few posts to catch up and even discussed her and her brother visiting next spring, so it served a vital real world purpose.

I have actively posted on message boards (politics, crime, etc.) since about 1998 and this is where I have met the bulk of my “online” acquaintances.  The resulting debates, PM’s (personal messages) and external communications can evolve into soap opera-like reality shows at times.  I recently signed up to Twitter to follow Election coverage.  I’ve now expanded my “following” to other interests there as well.

Why is social media so popular?  I watched my son sit in a restaurant with a girl he knew sitting at an adjacent table.  They nodded but never said a word to each other.  As soon as the girl left the restaurant, my son received a text message from her!  I find myself checking PM’s, and Tweets regularly via my iPhone.

Do “texts, “status” postings, “tweets” or “wall writing” bring us closer together, or further apart?  Are we relegated to real world anti-socials and cyber-popular? Can the two exist on a level plane?

Does reading that Brook is washing her car, or Jen is going to bed without her laptop tonight make us voyeurs? Is letting everyone know where you are via GPS and services such as Loopt make you safer and more connected?  Or does it sacrifice all your privacy? Does social media force people to invent themselves to compete with others?  Myspace and Facebook often appear as a beauty contest where females try to out do each other with “sexy” pictures.  Guys are guilty as well, posting macho profiles and graphics. Alias and nics on message boards are changed like underwear to play both sides of a debate or to garner “secret dirt” on another user.

I guess the point is, does the social media outlet allow us to be who we want to be, or force us to be something we are not?

Your comments, insights and experiences are welcome.