as always, i am conflicted. i am sitting on the fence. i am straddling the line. (any other good cliches?) last night, i signed up for foursquare, urbanspoon, urbandaddy, yelp and i downloaded 3 of the 4’s iphone apps. and then i went looking for other people on foursquare and found my lovely, wonderful, favorite at&t employee. should i make him my friend?

i have this distinct need to connect and socialize but yet i detest the commitment so much once i’m connected. or perhaps it’s really the lack of connectedness. RJ and i were just talking about the fakeness of befriending lots of people on FB who you absolutely know are not your friends and with whom you will never talk again. i keep my FB friend list small and therefore, when i read updates, i really read them all because i know these people and i’m interested in their lives. i don’t have time to sift through updates of 456 people.

i tell myself that i signed up because i simply want the GPS features and the tips from other users. and then i go looking for people, because i’m curious. i admit it: i’ve gone looking for people i knew in high school on FB…wondering what they are up to. (all of them appear to be straight – how is that even possible?)

and then i have this other issue: i have a huge list of places i enjoy and places i want to try, my favorites and my wishlist, if you will. i have them in a moleskine. i have them on this blog. i have them in a notes file on my iphone. and now i’m going to have them online in urbanspoon and yelp and tasting table to-dos, if i so desire. updating 6 different databases seems like overkill. this whole conversation underscores why i was always a paper person. it’s tactile. there’s only one copy: a well-thumbed, stained piece of paper with lots of history. and you don’t have to worry if the server is down or if the info won’t sync or if the web site disappears altogether. this is why i save the email newsletter. this is why i still haven’t signed up on a digital scrapbooking site. now i’m just rambling…

aye, dios mio! who cares? enjoy!