After months of failed attempts at hanging out I found myself at the local Healdsburg Bar and Grill  with a pal I met on Twitter along with her husband and my Love. The evening witnessed four people with far too many similarities laugh together and talk shop. A Chef, Physical Eduaction Teacher, Dental Hygenist and Tasting Room Manager all share the love of socializing over great food and of course, wine. Another common interest with the ladies is Twitter. It was on this website filled with that foreign language outsiders cannot possibly understand and nor do they want to, that I met @SlHousman. It was not for months after our first few weeks of sharing a #WineWednesday or offering eachother a #FollowFriday to our followers that I met her IRL (or as the rest of the world would say, in real life). I was working at Trione Winery (@TrioneWinery) during Barrel Tasting when Sherry brought in her husband (@MrHousman) and family to meet My Love, Tim (@UncleTimmy24) and me (@Moxie_Lady). Nearly one year after meeting IRL we sat around a small table in the downtown square discussing social media and the issues that come with participation.

We have subjected ourselves to a world where people can follow our every move through a GPS application. We post our inner most secrets, feelings, fears and ideas for the world to see , or at least those who are “friends” or are our “followers”. There are some ways people who are so active in social media can regulate what others see and do not see, but there really is not better way than to obstain. You really can relate everything in life to sex. The bottom line is, if you do not want to suffer the consequences, do not do it! Easier said than done. So what if you just do it a little bit? Well, once you are on Foursquare and Facebook then all of those friends want to connect on both. Add in Twitter and Yelp and you have one big incestious affair going on over the world wide web. Do not think that you can keep it small and just connect with those you know, once you deny someone you are twitter friends with on Facebook, then feelings start to get hurt. Suddenly you are liked less in the little world we call social media.

So what is the sacrafice? How do you maintain a “normal” life with such a heavily involved “social” life? Suddenly I feel I have several lives: A professional life to which I too have a social life, a personal life, social life and an internet social life. My internet social life goes everywhere with my via the handy phone applications. But is it really necessary to contact my “freinds” in far places while I dine out with my man? It is becoming the million dollar question. When is enough enough?

All etiquette goes out the window: not calling/contacting past 10:00pm or before 9:00am and of course whatever etiquette was lopst with text messaging. Now Tweeters are more annoymous due to the funny names only their followers know, people send messages off the grid through DM (direct message: a limited character e-mail on Twitter), Yelpers send compliments via a review to comment on a post or simply to keep in touch, orto say(as Yelp has already pre-programed )”cute pic!”, Facebook has their excessive photo uploaders, notes and full bios allowing people to create a full profile of themselves to broadcast to the world and then of course old fashioned e-mail. All of these avenues of communication do not have a cut off time because it is all there on your phone.

Still in the premature stages and being in the thick of it all, I ask myself, how is social media going to change our lives more? Understanding a little more each day, I welcome the changes with excitment. I also know that no matter how many times a day I see that @Moxie_Lady enjoying a “Perfect Manhattan” with a perfect group of people who are no longer perfect strangers (thanks to Twitter:)) will always be better!