Spring break is looming right around the corner.

Many students are using the nine-day hiatus from CMU to get a tan, work, visit friends and family or just take it easy for a few days.

I suggest adding something to the list of spring break activities: an opportunity to disconnect from social networking.

Social networking can be overwhelming. As a whole, it is like a universe, in which every site is its own galaxy, comprised of users whose status updates revolve around them like planets around a sun.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the Facebook, Twitter and, if anyone still uses it, MySpace galaxies.

For example, two of the four tabs that open when I start my browser are social networking sites. They are almost always the first Web sites I check. And I know that I spend more time on Facebook and Twitter than I do on CNN.com or Blackboard.

Social networking is fast becoming our generation’s preferred mode of communication. If you have a cell phone with the ability to send text messages, you can update your status on Facebook or send a tweet.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has created such an addictive product that it has engrained itself not only into our Internet habits, but into our daily discourse.

How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say, “Hey, did you see that thing on Facebook last night?”

Fellow columnist Lonnie Allen wrote about his addiction to FarmVille, a virtual farming application for Facebook and, though I have never played FarmVille, I know exactly what he means when he writes, “it is definitely an obsession I cannot go a day without.

Sure, this addiction of mine isn’t harming me physically, ‘I think.’ However, it has changed the way my day is conducted.”

I feel the exact same way about Twitter, Facebook and various other forms of social networking in general, especially when I first sign up.

It’s like the beginning of a relationship, the honeymoon stage, where you can’t get enough of each other. Just replace one of the people with Facebook or Twitter.

This is why students should seize the opportunity to “tune out” from these sites for a week.

Everything posted on these sites will still be there post-spring break. You won’t miss anything — which is why I don’t like to go without social networking — because, if it is actually important, someone will contact you outside of the Internet.

Most things posted on social networking sites are like yelling into a vacuum. There is no guarantee that anyone will hear (i.e. see) it.

And to be honest: they’re pretty mundane.

I am guilty of it, too, but if I miss So-and-So is “about to eat dinner,” I think I’ll be okay.

And I know if you miss something, you’ll be okay, too.

Spring break begins in two days. Commence digital silence.

E-mail the author: Michael L. Hoffman