The worst decision you can make when choosing from this ocean of social services is to use a service just because “everyone’s on it” and it’s cool. If you are choosing a service, analyse the advantages it can offer you and then decide if it’s worth it.

These should be the main questions you should ask yourself when signing up:

• Why should I create an account on “New Social Network X“?
• What are the advantages of this service?
• How can it help me?
• How will it affect my online privacy?

I might sound a little bit paranoid, but you should have a look (at least a shallow one) through the terms and conditions of every service you sign up on. The reasons are pretty clear if you care about your privacy. Sometimes a service is “free” because you’re letting its owners to scoop through your stuff.

I’ve created a Twitter account in 2007, but I haven’t used it intensively until 2008. At first, I considered it a big waste of time (unfortunately, it still is but I’ve learned how to filter out what I dislike) and posted only a few tweets monthly. For example, I have an account on Facebook. I rarely use it because I don’t see how a Facebook account can help me, as a person, with anything. I have a few friends there, mainly persons that I met in real life, and some strangers who I will probably never meet. I admit the fact that I created a Facebook account just because everyone was there.

I also have an account on Last.fm. I love music, so the main reason for creating this account was to discover new artists and bands. It’s also great for finding out what concerts are taking place in my area, and I even met some persons with similar music tastes.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, you should always ask yourself if a service could help you on the long run (from points of view like meeting people, new job opportunities, entertainment, etc.) and take action accordingly.

We’ve started to shed the clothes of anonymity, thinking that the Internet will give us at least a small amount of fame. Those 15 minutes of fame, at least. Or 15 MB of fame, if we move the whole thing online.

I am witnessing – as we all do – a complete renunciation of privacy in favor of a weird transparency that on the long run will affect our relationships, whether they are professional, love or family relations. We’re in a fast-forward medium that also allows us to skip moments. We only want the start and the end, forgetting about what’s in-between.

We share pictures on Facebook, let the whole world know we’re in a relationship with another Facebook user, tweet about things that a decade ago were considered intimate.

That’s why I am asking you: where are we heading? What’s the future of “sharing” and how does the current state affect us on the long run?

I had an account on most of the popular social networks, including Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Because I felt overwhelmed by them, I started quitting my accounts one by one. At this moment, I am using Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin with their usage exactly in this specific order. The “super-duper” trio.

Theoretically, if we would stop using the Internet for a couple of years, leaving behind everything that’s online and web related, the enthusiasm might return and some really cool apps would be created after this “hibernation”. Although the technology gives us the possibility to create the most interesting things, we are “getting used to” the old things and not looking to create some advanced web apps.