A while ago I took the plunge and joined Facebook. Both for personal and business reasons. A lot of photographers use Facebook for marketing purposes. I’ve managed to get in contact with friends from High School more than anything. I even just asked a friend who I hadn’t heard from in a while if she was on Facebook. Her response was “I am starting to get a complex about my lack of a Facebook page. I have been reprimanded on more than one occasion for not having one, I think that I will continue to hold out on principle.” I actually liked that answer. If you haven’t seen the “25 Things I Hate About Facebook,” you should.

Where are the 25 thing I hate about YouTube? How many more ads and icons are they going to put across the video???

Now I joined Twitter! I actually like it much better than Facebook. It’s more like micro-blogging. Just a quick update as to what’s going on with me, business and personal. What’s nice is that I can choose who I want to follow and whoever wants to follow me can. I don’t feel obligated to say yes or no to who can be my friend. Plus there are no constant notifications, apps to install, etc. However, you’re constantly watching Twitterrific to see what everyone updates are. Now my A.D.D. has kicked in and productivity has taken a plunge. Thank you to Jon Stewart for the Twitter explanation.

***UPDATE***
I had to add this…

I also just saw something on CNN about a woman who decided to get rid of her cell phone! WHAT? Everyone was asking here where she’s been. When she said she got rid of her cell phone, people were like “WHAT?”I understand the occasional need for disconnect from the world. Kelley and I went to San Diego before heading to Vegas and we had two days in San Diego with little to no internet connection and really not much contact with anyone other than the people we hung out with. I even turned to Kelley at one point and said “We have nothing to do. What are we going to do?” I felt so lost! It’s nice to disconnect once in a while from the world of instant communication and trying to keep up with what the Joneses are doing.

My question is, what is happening to our communication skills? Whatever happened to the phone call, or heaven forbid, a face to face conversation? I just heard about people working in the same office, in the same room, messaging each other instead of talking across the cubicals. I’ve been to a few functions where the youth are just sitting around on their cell phones texting, twittering, etc. Dare I walk up to them and say Hi? Or should I text them first? What are kids communication skills going to be like when they get older? I was walking in central park one beautiful day looking at my surroundings. The birds were chirping, and it wasn’t the Twitter bird. I would have missed so many wonderful things if I were face down in my phone. I don’t want to be that that guy walking down the pathway, missing out on real life, walking at 5 different speeds holding up the pathway while I was doing e-mail.

I’m always amazed when Kelley just walks up to someone and says hi without knowing anything about them. She can have a great conversation with a total stranger. I envy that. I always watch this and think, do they want to be bothered by a stranger? No one communicates like this anymore. I’m an open book, come say hi to me! I’ve had photographers come up to me to introduce themselves and say hi, but that was the extent of it. Yet later on my blog, e-mail, twitter, etc. It’s “It was great to meet you…” and then they go on for 500 words. I guess it really is much easier that way.

There are so many connections to make in the virtual world. I feel like people are losing their connection to the actual world, like the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, visiting your family and friends (with your cell phone locked away in the car). You can get so caught up in the virtual world of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Just don’t forget about what surrounds you and what’s important to you.

Today, and hopefully this weekend, I am taking a break from Twitter and Facebook. I just have a few calls to make today. This will be the only blog post till Monday, and the only blog post I’ll read today. Lets see how productive I get today. Let’s see how much I live this weekend when my office will be closed.

A quote taken from the last tweet I’ll read today “Imagine what you can do with all those extra hours of life” -Jesh de Rox

If you want to be connected, my Twitter updates automatically update my Facebook status… So if you want to friend me on Facebook, here’s my page: Richard Espostio

If you want to get my tweets on Twitter: REPhotoDesign

I will continue to check my e-mail only twice a day.