Face-to-face communication, the modern way (Image: Martin Puddy/The Image Bank/Getty)

Interactive: See a visualisation of the links in your Facebook social network using this app developed by Touchgraph, a company based in New York

NOTHING personal, but I don’t really want to be your online friend. I’m sorry, I’m sure you are very nice. It’s not you, it’s me: I’m feeling grumpy and a tad antisocial, so perhaps we are all better off.

And that goes for you too, annoying ex-classmate who just “friended” me on Facebook. Get lost, media-type I met at a party; your all-too-frequent status updates are pretentious. Trusted colleague, please stop judging my professionalism by the posts on my wall. And mother, you know I love you, but instead of getting upset, please just stop looking at my late-night pub photos.

It may come as no surprise that I have been having second thoughts about online social networking. Anecdotally at least, cutting the cord may be the healthy way to go. My wife shunned such networks from the start and yet has so far managed to avoid becoming a social pariah (between us, this has had an upside: up until now she has been blissfully unaware that an ex-girlfriend friended me last year). In short, what started out as a fun way to keep up with friends is now stressing me out.

For many of us – 400 million worldwide so far and counting – online networking has become enmeshed in our daily lives. It has transformed our social structures and behaviour. Research tracking our habits on these sites is only just emerging, and its …