Social Tools Unknown to Man Before Today

Sometimes it's worth it just to take a break and look back at what mankind has accomplished.  We truly have made a lot of accomplishment since our primate ancestors decided to get a clue and build cars.  Remember those old days?  Back when you had to send messages by carrier pigeon to your beloved?  Or have a scribe write a love poem on a slab of stone that would take months to travel to another city?  Nowadays you can text some kid in China without batting an eyelash for less than a dollar.  What in the world!

Now for those of you who just found out cell phones exist and joined the 21st century with the rest of us, here are some general guidelines for the new, exciting way to maintain your friendships

Texting

1) Emoticons - only use them when serious and with caution.  Nothing will ruin your chances of impressing that girl down the street than a poorly placed smiley face.  But these are still a very vital part of conversation with those who you know very well.  A smiley face :) will be sure to sent a flirtatious message to that special someone; an angry face >:( may playfully mask your real feelings of wanting to legitimately strangle someone; and the ever classic winky face (a personal favorite) ;) is a tool that can be applied in many ways; try this instead of a text sometime.  It just may give your other texting idea a run for its money!

2) Doublesies - these are bad, bad, bad!  Be sure to only use these in case of extreme emergency; no one loves to be hassled and manhandled by a string of texts from another person.  The unspoken rule of texting etiquette is that you send one text, and do NOT send another one before you get one in return!  Caution!  Use of the doublesies is very dangerous and should only be performed by well-seasoned texters.

3) Actual text length - who likes getting long texts that could have been said in two lines?  No one!  If you want to play chess with me friend, do not be verbose about it!  Texting is the wrong time to spill your heart and soul into a lengthy poem.

Now, on the other side of the coin for my romantic texters, long length tends to be a good thing.  Just like a real conversation; if I walk up to a girl at the zoo and start hitting on her, asking questions like, "What's your name?" or "Where do you live? or "What's your blood type?", I know that she is not interested if she gives me blunt, stabbing answers like "Yes" or "No".  If they are interested, they will answer with a little spice, as they say.

Facebook

1) Sending messages - not so cool.  Unless you have no other way of communication and are faced with the decision of using either carrier pigeons or Facebook messages, you may have permission to use Facebook.  But it still looks kind of tacky.  Especially if that's the main way you send your marriage invites and pester 6,000 people about your dance party.  Please use these sparingly.

2) Being online all the time - also not so cool.  You don't want to be that kid that everyone says, "Yeah, I was on at two in the morning and Steve was playing that dumb FarmVille game again."  Number one, if you're playing Farmville at two in the morning, take a hike.  Number two, Facebook is to enhance your real social life, not to be a substitute for it. Sorry to burst your bubble, that one kid who is on all the time.

3) Including your friends in your status - this is very cool.  There's nothing that will slap a platonic smile on the face of ANYone after reading about them in other's blogs.  Gadzooks.  That really is a fine way to start your day.

Second Life: the Virtual World

Introduction: a quick intro for those who don't know what this is.  You make an avatar (any way you like) - he can fly up and move from social groupings to social groupings.  You can build a virtual house, have a virtual job, and you can even take the money you have and convert it into their money.  Best part: you can work in the virtual world and convert your virtual money to actual money.  But that's a topic for another day.

1) Make a hot avatar - Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.  A blue woman with sexy wings and a fluffy cat tail?  You know you'll be the talk of the virtual town!  Perhaps just take a more conservative approach - a 6'0" tall football player with rippling muscles?  You will definitely find yourself a virtual girlfriend within days.

2) Don't swear at people - I know this from personal experience.  It gets pretty personal pretty quick.  Don't go there.

3) When you get a virtual job, don't forget you still have a job in real life - this is definitely a tricky obstacle that many Second Life users must overcome.  The world and virtual reality is blended into a beautiful mesh of not knowing what's what.  Kind of like swimming - don't forget which direction is up!

Download your copy here:http://secondlife.com/