“And then there was that stupid social networking system, how it had just seemed like the most convenient vessel for the average narcissist. How I’d despised those who couldn’t eat a meal without prodding through their glowing portable Internet devices, searching for some tasty piece of gossip, or perhaps just something to complain about.But that social network had become an overnight epidemic—I’d watched as the daily ways in which we’d lived our lives became molded to fit this shallow instrument. It was a vast change—whether it was social evolution or de- evolution, I wasn’t quite sure; but before I knew it, by society’s standards, it was I that had become the social leper.”

“Myth Number 4: Social Media Is the Shiny New Thing. Two Years from Now, That Bubble Will Burst Yes, it is the shiny new thing. No, two years from now, that bubble will not burst. There is no bubble. What social media represents is an evolution in the field of communications, just as the Internet and mobility before it. The tools will change, the platforms will evolve, but the way in which people communicate with other people through digital networks and electronic devices has been fundamentally transformed through the development of social media. We did not grow tired of the telephone, of the...”

“Men like to share outrageous stories with one another - embellishing the keenness of our instincts and exaggerating the metallic compounds that make up our genitalia, or "brass balls" as they say.”

“There's something aboard that thing, a dark and powerful figure. And it awaits the coming of something--something terrible.”

“A butterfly does not mourn the passing of its former caterpillar, nor a snake, the shedding of its former skin.”

“Social gatherings can serve three purposes: networking, gossip, or politics. Many care about the social, some about the gatherings, and a few about neither...”

“By early 2004 Tickle had become the second-largest social network after Friendster, with two million members actively connected to others and exchanging messages.”