social networks

greater than the sum of its parts

that's what I look like on the other side of the 17" window to the world, the monitor screen that's become so much a part of life it's beginning to feel like an extension of my own eyes now
but I still feel sometimes that never mind the sum, each of the parts is becoming greater than the source
Yahoo avatars, Gtalk and Gmail that knows who you are and who you talk to all the time, anywhere you go, and won't let you hide; MSN, meebo, Y!M will ding away incessantly in the background over your work, your games, your movie, and your music; outlook reminders pop up like with a sound like smug cherubs; gunshot-ricochets of Y!M's telling you you have new mail.
Then it's the apps you use - updates, expirations, registrations, ads, newsletters, feature disablement, cracks, hacks, patches, bugs and bug fixes, UGs... somewhere in the world are a bunch of servers that know you, what you do, who you are, what you like, and will not hesitate to use that info any way they can to complete their mission objectives; to make you spend.
And the human interfaces. Strangers trolling through orkut, friendster, ryze, linkedin. Your blog that suddenly starts collecting escort-service ads in comments. scraps that are text pictures of extraordinarily cheesy Archies cards sentiments.
Targeted ads in your mailbox
Spam SMSs
mailers
in-game ads custom made for you
bank alerts
payment reminders
calls, calls, calls
skype dings

My IP probably has a greater presence in the world than I do now