I'm probably one of the last to mention it, but political change is coming to this creaking old country once again it seems. Labour are pressing every self destruct button they can find in a bid to do everything to lose the next General Election. This was on clear display yesterday as they collapsed, as widely predicted by political commentators in Crewe. Watching the pre result discussion on BBC News last night it all became clear to me why this was happening; the involvement of the likes of Chris Bryant. And I'm not even going to make reference to his private life.

He gave an effectively brainless performance attempting to justify the smear campaign adopted in Crewe. And as a previous Labour follower I was left for the first time wondering where my vote would be going next time around. Things must change in this country and mostly for reasons like yesterday. Whilst I have never hidden my dislike for the old Conservatives, it appears that their winning candidate yesterday is a strong willed individual whom you would want as your local MP. Labour's candidate looked weary from the beginning, struggling to hold herself to even simple TV sound bytes that I caught and not inspiring me even as an outsider. The Guardian described her defeat as "crushing", which is probably a light word to use in the scheme of things.

It is hard to summarise my feelings overall. I consider myself particularly interested in Politics and considering that I am a part of what is an apathetic youth culture towards voting, I expected more effort from Labour. Tony Blair was a major factor for me voting Labour last time around, I will make no secret of that. Whilst he was not every-one's "cup of tea" I believe he was the best option at the time, he got things done and he would never have allowed situations to escalate on every matter as they seem to right now. Furthermore he had strong leadership, actually made decisions and was man enough to stick by them. This is what we simply do not get from Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and even Jacqui Smith. I am not inspired by them, I see them changing their minds, making changes I see no logic in and all at a time when there are honestly more pressing concerns. This brings me back to Chris Bryant who smiled quite deviously last night when confirming he played a part in the ousting of Tony Blair. To him I say well done, you have truly played your part in handing the next election, bar a miracle, to the Conservatives. Clueless, thoughtless and reckless politics in action or what?

A few commentators are now referring to the Tories as a government in waiting and it is interesting to think about how this has happened. It cannot be attributed to Conservative party policies, I could not name you anything of note that has made me want to vote outright for them. The interesting factor is that Labour are alienating me and making me look to the Tories as the alternative. Bizarre indeed considering that David Cameron is just about the most false looking individual since, well, some would argue Tony Blair. But that is a much explored topic and one I will skip over! It is therefore a battle of who has the fewest flaws, Gordon Brown the tired looking, straw grappling individual he has become. Or Cameron, Mr. Nice, in every photo and available from his breakfast table for a webcast each morning. A little spooky.

Dare I mention the no hopers? A little harsh perhaps but Nick Clegg, or the Lib Dems leader is at best hoping to hoover up the undecided vote once again. He comes across as the "new head teacher" kind of leader, let us hope he proves me wrong! That said his normality is in stark contrast to the other two main parties, though if he possesses a rational outlook it will undoubtedly get absorbed into the tit for tat arguments conducted in the open arena of mass media.

The post title states that there will be political change, but perhaps it needs to be more than just in terms of who runs our country. I feel genuinely dissolusioned and find myself not wanting to waste a vote, but also not to simply hand it away either. There is much debate to be had over the coming months, and hats off to Gordon Brown in advance if he manages to fix the gaping hole in a sinking ship.

It is difficult to construct a critique of a particular genre of website without sounding biased one way or another. I have deliberately abstained from commenting or adding my voice until I'd felt that I'd "experienced" and explored such sites, and with that in mind, here I present the results. Or shall we say findings?

Social networking sites exhaust vast amounts of our time in the belief that we are somehow enhancing our status and knowledge of our "friends". Perversely, these networks of friends are often distant acquaintances or those whom we gave little more than an approving nod to when we did in fact see them in the flesh that once. There are vast amounts of research and debate into how many friends we actually maintain in our lifetime, which generally boils down to literally single figures in terms of meaningful friendships of longevity. And whilst depressing in itself, it is perhaps more depressing when considering the scurry to accumulate such relationships online. It is not the status of displaying any visible relationship to the person, merely the fact that you have a perceived numerical advantage in your own head.

To travel back in time slightly now. Myspace was the first major mainstream social networking website. Noted for the difficulty of navigation, frequent errors and hacking, it committed and commits many web development faux pas that ordinarily we as consumers just would not accept. I remember finding this fascinating, the sheer volume of people using the website despite its major character flaws. Perhaps this reflected the very users however, myself included? Never before had there been access to cumulatively so many people I knew; I could for the first time display my contacts like a badge of honour. I conclude it must be some strange primevil desire to be a part of something, however collectively inane and what in modern terms is often referred to as "following like a sheep". A further irony emerged, to me at least, in Myspace's acquisition by the NewsCorp media group in 2005. A dull, uninventive media corporation acquiring a much hyped and much used Myspace, which at its bones is the very same thing. Myspace has changed little in reality for five years and whilst not struggling, it is certainly stagnating. The bizarre angle is that its success was not the imperfections that people put up with, it was that it was new and filled a hidden craving to list our friends and post some photos to be ridiculed by our contacts.

Myspace led to the establishment of social networking as an Internet category of preference. One would check their emails, catch up on the news and in all likelihood the next tab of choice would be that of a social networking tool. Developers druelled then and now over the very thought of becoming the next social networking site of choice for idiotic schoolgirls, time killing office workers, dull IT staff, paedophiles and the attention deficit ridden students. Search for social networking websites and you will find page after page of dull, boring social networking initiatives designed with hippy colours, arty 3-d logos and all touting the unrealistic notion that people genuinely want to spend their time moving from one useless site to another. They all have one thing in common; no-one will ever be interested in them. It would be like becoming a market leader over Coca-Cola overnight; essentially it's a can of pop. You could bring out an identical drink and rename it and nobody would buy it.

Facebook is the "other" option. I predict it will remain the market leader because there is evidently a plan at their headquarters. Firstly they made it easy to use, it's stupid proof to enable even the hordes from Myspace to have an account. In addition, ease of use attracts another kind of user; regular Internet users. This coupled with "applications" was truly genius. The stupid can rate who's hot and not all day and night, whilst the rest of us can review movies, share media and use it to catch up with our genuine friends. It is not without its faults. It is still ultimately boring, a haven for identity theft and Facebook is not cool, no matter how hard we attempt to convince ourselves. It is useful for contacting groups of work colleagues, establishing working groups and finding people you hoped you would never see again!

Unfortunately I must stand back and be more level headed when examining, truly, what is the point? My casual minded self concludes that it is a convenient way to talk to distant friends, view and share photos and be a part of like minded people in Groups. My honest minded self observes that I waste what is my own personal valuable time reading dull emails, cursing various pointless postings and ignoring many application requests.

I will not even go into Bebo, WAYN and Friends Reunited - they are collectively my personal three most despised websites on the Internet. Badly designed, sponsor driven and the latter even requires a subscription fee. Do not waste your time.

To conclude;

I like the convenience of it all, but for all the benefits there are many let downs. Security flaws, no genuine "content" at all and many pointless visits. Let me not appear to dislike these sites outright, I have profiles on Myspace and Facebook that I actively maintain, but that does not mean I don't think they are a waste of my time and an insult to our collective intelligence. I came to the decision lately to check Facebook just twice a week and Myspace once a month. My reasoning; anybody whom I genuinely needed to be contacted by had my personal email address and/or telephone number. Anything of great importance can and will reach me. I even took the liberty of turning off email notifications, reducing my spam and various pointless visits to these sites only to discover an ad filled newsletter or that I had another Fluffy Dog Application request. I suggest you do the same.

Ultimately these websites are tools for communication to be used at a time that should be dictated by you. A shovel is also a tool, I only use mine when I need to dig a hole. I don't pick it up every 30 minutes, dig a little more of the hole and then put it back into the shed for later.

Fin.