You're being watched.

Yammering, twittering, whatver it is: for a society so concerned about being watched, we’re certainly making it easy. The explosion of social networking websites offers you the chance of using virtually any communications technology to update your 'status' line anywhere you are.

"Dave is at the laundromat."

"Shalini is eating a panini."

"Michele is updating her Facebook status."

I know it's supposed to give your friends a view into how your day is going, but really, it's annoying. Is anyone really that interesting? And how are you supposed to have a life if your whole life is punctuated by pauses to update people on what you're doing?

Since I got more liberal in who I've been 'friending' on Facebook, I've gotten a new perspective on this. Where it might be moderately interesting to know that an especially brave or reckless friend is getting a manicure before going bowling, I don't really need to know that someone I barely know is going to the DMV.

And when you actually kinda dislike one of your 'friends,' it actually becomes kind of fun to mock them. (Can you call them 'Facebook frenemies'?) One is especially pretentious and enjoys dropping famous names into his status lines. He's always saying that he's hanging out with celebrities, when the truth is that he goes to a lot of fundraisers that well-known people happen to frequent. How insecure do you have to be to say that you commiserated about the Giants with Kathie Lee Gifford at a cocktail party? Like any b-list celebrity is actually going to remember or care about your theories on what the team should have done during the playoffs.

It does raise the question, though: if I mock someone who's pretentious and insecure, does it make me pretentious and insecure by association? I'll have to ask Oprah what she thinks. She should be here any minute.