It just occurred to me that that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are allowing us to tivo our friendships. Instead of the world we used to live in where social interaction was a real-time activity, now we can interact on a very deep social level whenever it is convenient.

There is term given to our tv viewing habits since the advent of Tivo and other digital video recorders and that is “Time Shifting”. Tivo allows us to watch our favorite tv shows whenever they are convenient to us. Gone are the days when all things had to stop because The Dukes of Hazzard is coming on. Now we place our favorites in a season pass, and we can watch at 3:00AM when we can’t fall asleep.

Social networking sites bring that sort of time shifting ability to our relationships. In facebook, when you log in, you get a blow-by-blow, moment-by-moment recap of everything your friends have been doing.

I don’t know why, but something about this is a little creepy. I don’t want my relationships to be relegated to a simple RSS feed. I guess the onus is on me, and all of us, to go beyond the keyboard and screen and actually get some face time with the people we love.

Look down your friend list and go on a coke date, eat a burrito or go throw a disc.

Facebook, MySpace, have you heard of these places? They are examples of social networking websites; websites built around gathering people together around common interests or … something. As time passes, social networking has morphed and ballooned to the point that it is hard to define. All the definitions fall short because social networking functionality is popping up everywhere.

I just heard about something on Om Malik’s blog that will add to the craziness. It is called www.ning.com. Social networking has become commodity. Now it has become easy to deploy.

Ning allows you to set up a fully functional social network website that revolves around anything that you are passionate about or that catches your fancy.

Think about the organizations you belong to. Keeping up with all the members can be a bit of a nightmare. We are all busy, heading in many directions at once. A social network site that allows like-minded individuals to rally may be just the thing. But, be careful. Social Networking looks to be the parachute pants of the 2000′s.