Let’s face it, time is the ultimate luxury. When it comes to honing your social skills; the ones you take the time to develop are the ones that will provide the greatest ROI.

I’d argue that for everyone born after 1995, it is far more valuable to cultivate your online social networking talents than any in person skills. Sure, you still have to be able to say “Yo” or “Later” with some degree of social acumen, but since teenagers have always been the embodiment of self absorbed narcissism, one can see the immediate attraction of online social networking.

After all, what is more narcissistic than constantly tweeting or updating your Facebook page? I suppose the idea is to say you are staying socially connected, but isn’t it really “Hey, look at me… Enough about me, what do you think about me?” With all this social networking, folks can retain the focus on themselves without having to bother with annoying reciprocal social conventions such as empathy.

To make matters worse, how can anyone bother with appropriate in-person social skills when there are 1,000 new apps for your iPhone in the past week alone? Staying socially connected in the online world is a never ending treadmill. Online connectivity is a jealous mistress, one who does not take kindly to competition of any sort. The only way to placate this mistress is to keep up with her, and the only way to do that is to forego any in-person interaction in favor of downloading the newest app.

I should counter this by saying how impressed I am with the level of volunteerism and public service that many schools have introduced. There is a greater emphasis these days on “giving back to the community”, and “helping those less fortunate”. However, I do worry that today’s highly compartmentalized students are able to perform community service without tying it back to the overall idea of community - that once the service is performed, it’s back to cyberspace as usual.

The other day I was leaving a coffee shop and the young man ahead of me opened the door wide enough for only himself, all the while texting on his cell phone, oblivious to anyone around him. How many of us have seen young folks texting incessantly while at a party or with their friends? It’s like they’re there, but not there. With one foot in the moment and the other foot in cyberspace, their social persona places a greater importance on their avatar.

I wonder if any of us can serve two masters and do justice to either of them.