If you're like me, you've just pinged a Twitter user you haven't chatted with in a while. Later you'll write on the wall of a friend in Facebook whom you haven't heard from in a few months. This, of course, is all in between DM'ing your "regular" Twitter buddies, and reading status updates from your more active Facebook friends.

Juggling the act of staying in touch with all of your "contacts" can become an exhausting cycle. And the easier social networks make it to meet new people, the more "work" it requires of you.

"Friend counts" are out of control - some Facebook users have more than 300 friends, and Twitter users much more. How many of those people do you think that person regularly talks to? Are we truly maximizing each connection, or are the friendships made for "show" - just to increase your numbers?

There is no right or wrong way to use social networks, but I'm inclined to believe that each "connection" should be harnassed for what it's worth. Adding new friends is easy, but staying involved in their lives is much more difficult.

I tend to fall behind as well. A month will go by and I'll recall someone I haven't pinged in a while. This is unintentional, of course - there's just too many people to keep up with. All of my time is already eaten up by social networking habits.

The overload is good in way, though. It forces your brain to pick and choose who really matters to you, and who is worth keeping in touch with regularly. I figure if the person is important enough to me, and has made an impact on me, I'll eventually remember to ping them.

If not, perhaps the connection is not worth keeping. After all, we can't all get along, but when you meet the right people, you'll know it.