I’ve had a few conversations over the past two weeks which have made me stop and think about why I’m always on Facebook or Twitter (sorry blog, I’ve been cheating on you SO BAD.) What is it about these two social networking sites that have me hooked?

I’ve pondered a bit this morning (not too much because that would interrupt my tweeting and status updates) and I’ve come to a few conclusions:

1) As a single mom of two kids, my at-home conversations usually go something like this:

“Mom, guess what? I farted!” or “Mom, there’s this boy at school…” You can figure out which comment belongs to which child: the 7-year old boy or the 10-year old girl. As you can see, there isn’t much substance accompanying either of these conversation starters.

2) I grew up in the military (Army brat tyvm) and I’m lucky enough to have found several pals on Facebook from way back when. Facebook gives me the ability to keep in touch with these friends without writing lengthy emails all the time. Rather, I’m able to catch up on their life just by browsing their profile page, and I know they can do the same on mine (although I’m sure most of them skip over the silly stuff like “Mason just farted”). Facebook also allows me some downtime to embezzle in companies, rob banks and blackmail those in government positions (Hey, I’m talking about Mafia Wars!) or to work on planting fields and crops in FarmTown (a true aid for OCD as you can make those rows perfectly straight).

3) Sometimes I can’t put what I really want to say on Facebook. Maybe I don’t need a million replies or comments, but instead a spot to post a rant, rave or something funny that just popped into my head. Probably funnier to me than to everyone else but hey, I’m just sayin. Then there’s that pesky little problem with Facebook: My boss is my friend. Yes I know, that’s like, bad juju on Facebook. However, I tried to de-friend her once and blame the powers that be (must be a glitch) but she pitched SUCH a fit (it’s true) that I HAD to add her back. (Scroll through my posts and you’ll see her comment about kicking and screaming.) So now I have to keep my snarky work-related comments to myself and send them into outer space via Twitter.

So yeah, I may be throwing out random quotes or comments, but every time I update my status or send out a tweet, I sort of feel a strange connection to all those 450 friends on Facebook (I only *really* know about half of them…) who may or may not be able to sympathize or empathize with me. Maybe I’ll give someone a laugh or maybe someday I’ll post something truly poignant and world peace will follow.

And blogging? Well, I guess this is my way of ‘sharing a bit more details for those of you who really care… (cricket chirping noises).

Or maybe I’m just having a grown-up (albeit one sided) conversation.

=)