On blogging, MySpacing, facebooking and so on and so forth

Why do we join all there network/blog things? i rarely, if ever update any of these, present blog excluded, yet i find my self checking them all on an almost daily basis. Why? few of my contacts update their sites either, yet i continue to check them. little or no information is actually gleaned nor is there much direct contact. it is simply this 'passive' interaction via reading other people's posts/notes/updates... i think to some extent it is my own need for being 'in the loop', but why? am i really this insecure? seemingly, i am. this bothers me a little... even so, i'll more than likely continue to check tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...

an even more interesting feature of this whole issue, is that there is rarely any further interaction concerning a specific post, with the actual person; with only one or two exceptions, i cannot remember reading and or commenting on someone’s blog, myspace etc, and then talking about said post further in person the next time we meet face to face. Why is there this chasm between 'virtual' and 'real' conversations?