Social Networking and an Introvert

Yes I am an introvert. According to the questionnaire in this Wiki article, I am somewhere between 70 to 80% introvert. Well what intrigues me is, why is the word “Introvert” is attached with a negative connotation. According to me, being an introvert is as much normal as being an extrovert. However, my intention now is not to prove that the general misconception is wrong and neither I am a frequent visitor of sites like Living Introverted. This article grabbed my attention recently, which explains how social networking sites have helped introverts to connect well with people and progress up in the career. This post is just to see how much socially networked I am. Social networking sites have become a super hit in the past few years and covers a wide spectrum of sites. They are,
Orkut, FB et al – I deleted my Orkut profile couple of months ago. I hardly visit my FB profile, just to approve the piled up friend requests and to see the technical advancements in the site. I don’t understand why people are so much after increasing their friends list count. Those friends remain there, untouched, forever. I am comfortable using GTalk or an email to send messages to friends than posting on the walls.
LinkedIn – This site slightly differs as it is a networking site for professionals. Job search is something we keep doing in our life. If not now, this site will be helpful while looking out for a job. Apart from that, this site is special to me, as it was through this site I recently earned my first $$$ online. Some survey site picked my profile and sent me a link, and I was lucky enough to be with in the first 300 people who took that survey.
Blogs – I am very much attracted to blogging. Blogging is ideally my way of social networking. I believe blogs have pushed the conventional journalism to a higher level. Yes, most blogs are terrible and so is mine. But I still support that blogging should continue to exist, unregulated, filled with ideas.
Twitter – This is something that goes over the top. I find it very trivial. I am not amused with the idea of updating my friends with my every move. I am not sure whether twitter has more to it, but I keep myself away from it.
Discussion forums – I find this concept very useful. Whenever I have a technical doubt, I just log on to Sun forum or JavaRanch, where a bunch of experts/ranch hands waiting to respond to our doubts. And of course, I got few response as RTFMs, but still discussion forums are irresistible.
There are other sites like Delicious, StumbleUpon, which cannot be completely ignored and I found them often useful. Coming back to me, I, as an introvert, have continued to remain an introvert, ignoring the efforts taken by these social networking sites. Regardless of what I say, social networking sites, as a concept, has changed the way we spend our time online. Looking forward to some mind blowing ideas in this area….