I live in a hiding place, it's the only way i feel safe

Social networking, and to a lesser extent (though hoping for this to change) blogging, are a big big part of my life. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, MSN and now Blogger are all a large part of my life, but why is this. Maybe to a lesser extent with Facebook, where it's more to stay in touch with friends, at home, and at university. I certainly feel that it is almost an attempt to escape from my "real life" - even if somewhat a futile attempt now that i know more and more people on such sites well. So yes, social networking, i sense this is true for many people, not just me, is just an escapist policy. So why do we so desperately want to escape from our real lives, is it a case of stress? A case of things not going our way, or something else completely different.
For me at the very least i feel it is a mix of all of these:
At first, way back when i was a 16 year old boy, I was very sceptical about the whole Myspace thing. Msn was for people I'd met only, and, my parents (well my mum) being Daily Mail readers, and me being very impressionable, believed the Internet was 100% paedophiles who wanted to anally rape me by meeting me at the local burger king!
Quickly however i realised that, contrary to the "Daily Outrage's" propaganda machine, that if you were even vaguely careful that, not everyone was a 45 year old bloke with a beard wanting my anal virginity and to post pictures of my nude self all over the Internet for other beardy people to wank over. In fact i met some people who, to this day, i count among my best friends, Courtney, KP, ES,(Oh by the way - all those i didn't ask for permission to name them are merely initials), others i still talk to regularly, BA,EF, BL, RC, RW , and some who fell by the wayside, BL, being the example i remember the name of. This is just from the initial Myspace days, through these people, and friends, I've met other people who are notably awesome, and again truly come under the category of some of my best friends - Hannah, and Kat come to mind here.
So it came to pass very quickly i had found a great source of friends, friends who, not being involved in my life off the computer, often were easier to talk to about issues in my day to day life, not only because they had an impartial view of the situation, but also, not knowing anyone else involved, no gossiping could be done.
I honestly believe that, were it not for Myspace in particular, two of the three people i would count as my closest friends nowadays would not be in my life.
So although initially social networking was probably a way out of my life, in a way it now IS my life.
Myspace has also been a good place to rant, as, more recently, has twitter, however i feel this is because if i am annoyed with someone i can shout about them without them hearing, as such twitter was my new main outpouring, but now, as more and more people i know,and hence may get annoyed with, get such social networking tools, i sense it will be this blog, not neccesarily because people won't read it - in fact i hope they will, but i won't know that they are reading it, and can retain some anonymity - for them at least. so if i am ever harsh to you on here, please take it with a pinch of salt, blogs make for best reading when you are thinking irrationally, at least in my opinion, so ranting will be done.

So Anyway, the Point of this blog? Well, two fold:
A huge thank you to all of those above for being awesome mates, especially those actually named, your awesome, and i genuinely love you all.
Secondly, to see what other peoples experiences of social networking are?

Comment me up peoples
Peace, and love to you all, you Internet peoples, I'm glad i know you!