It is easy to get addicted to chatting with people online. I have spent more time talking with a close friend the past few weeks than ever before, and somehow it has made me eager to do more chatting. In the past I always left my IM Away message up while I was working, not wanting to be interrupted. Lately I’ve been leaving it off, hoping that all those people I’ve ignored for so long will suddenly want to chat with me.

I finally understand the attraction of social sites such as Facebook, where you create a circle of friends who leave you messages periodically–or so I assume–that you answer, keeping the lines of communication open. A few weeks ago I overheard one of my students comment to another, “I facebooked everybody with the news.” An easy way to keep in touch with all of your friends instantaneously. I know a few people my age on Facebook, so it would not be out of the realm of possibility to join it, but who would want to leave me messages anyway?

I have belonged to a mail group for nearly a year now at which numerous sf fans send literally dozens of emails every day, many of them people I know talking of topics of varying degrees of interest. Until recently I scanned the mail perhaps once a week, rarely, if ever, responding to any of it. But now I’m reading the mail every day, sometimes twice a day, and I actually replied this past weekend.

Is it possible that after several decades I’ve suddenly gotten the urge to socialize (and is it all SRP’s fault, haha)? And, if so, is it too late to matter?