Re-establishment of Social Norms

OK, so maybe this isn't as much of a petition as it is a mission statement, but, we'll give it a shot anyway.

For the past several years "online social networking" has taken the world by storm. In the beginning, these "friend/blog/share/relationship" sites were virtually unknown, but word-of-mouth spreads quickly given the extremely effective communication medium that is the internet. In less than a decade our very image of socialization has undergone a complete facelift, and we, the Undersigned, believe that this facelift is destroying the once awesome activity of human interaction.

We choose to see the unfavorable changes that these new forms of information technology have cast upon our lives. Address books are being replaced with copious lists of people who claim to be our "friends." Old forms of communication like the telephone are becoming obsolete, even feared. These methods of personal human contact are being abandoned in favor of cold and impersonal short hand; a sorry substitute for bonafide interaction.

We, the Undersigned, recognize this scourge that has effortlessly affected our peers. We refuse to continue feeding the fire that is crippling the social skills of our information generation. We will not favor these short-handed means of communication over the voiced alternative. We acknowledge the importance of getting to know someone, not by a meticulously written self analyzing statement, or several photos taken to show off a person's best, but by getting to know someone by forging long lasting and favorable relationships... old school style.