Can You See the Virtual Me?

I tweet, therefore I am.

There is an electronic version of me that exists on the Internet. You'll find me on Twitter; Facebook; My Space; Linked In; Stereofame; Soundclick; Garage Band; Kompoz; and a few more places that I can't remember.

Looking at this list, it seems either I'm over exposed or badly in need of attention.

I can't figure out which.

With this version of me living out there, I aim to keep him as close to the real me as possible. It seems some people want to be my "friend" on the Internet. I've reconnected with childhood friends, people I know from my University of Florida days, and former colleagues I've met on my journey from journalism, through politics to public relations.

And there are some I've never met. They ask to be my Facebook or My Space friend and follow me as I follow them on Twitter. A good friend noted the other day about the number of people he had never met who want to be his "friend" and wondered what the proper etiquette is in this situation. Do you add or ignore them? If you don't accept their friendship, will you hurt their feelings?

There's a hilarious must-see video called The Internet Party produced by Those Aren't Muskets on Cracked.com. In this video, Google's throws a party and the Internet comes over. A young woman comes in looking for Craig of Craig's List fame.

To me, social media on the web reminds me of the college bar scene. It's a place where, much like finding a new bar, the cool people discover a new site and buzz spreads about that site attracting more people. Before you know it, the site is cluttered with tons of new people and the cool people move on to find a hot new site.

If it were a movie, we could have a sequel to Looking for Mr. Goodbar and call it Looking for Mr. Goodsite, with visitors cruising the web in search for meaningful social encounters. Let's hope the people we meet and befriend in these new social gathering spots are true to who they are in the real world.

Or, to paraphrase a great song called The Real Me written by Pete Townshend for The Who's Quadrophenia: Can you see the virtual me? Can you? Can you?

Now, I'm off to tweet about my new blog posting.