I am not really anti-social and neither am I a misanthrope. I love humanity in the abstract but I admit that I find most not worth the bother, and consider a significant number pretty intolerable. Upon reflection, I concluded that the behavior that most bothers me is herding. Herding is alright for sheep and their ilk but when humans do it, it is pitiable.

It is good to have a small family, a few friends, and a pretty large number of acquaintances related to personal and professional interests. Keeping in touch with them has become really efficient and easy due to the internet and the web. The downside is the the growth of web-based social networks. Suddenly, there are too many people who you have to maintain acquaintance with. It is not humanly possible to maintain your connections on Ryze, Linkedin, Facebook, Google groups, email lists, twitter groups and dozens of other networking sites without losing your sanity. They are a needless distraction that makes one gradually stupid because in all the details one follows, one loses focus on the big issues that matter.

I have stopped responding to people who would like to connect with me on Linkedin and other social networking sites. Like I said before, I dislike herding.