With Facebook now surpassing 250 million members, it comes as no surprise to learn that Gates and many others, are being held hostage to their social networking whims.
Whether it be one of the world's richest men, or the person sitting next to you in the office, chances are, the social networking phenomena demands a slice out of your daily life that may be more work than play.
Keeping on top of these constant 'friending' demands may be too much work for some.
According to an AFP story, Gates told an Indian audience that Facebook was getting too hard to keep tabs on. The 'too many friends' dilemma has pushed Gates towards giving up on Facebook and maybe social networking altogether.
It's not just Facebook either. You'd be forgiven for losing track of who's who on any of the major social networking platforms, with the plus 1,300% growth spurt experienced by Twitter, a constant reminder of the 'too many friends (or followers) we don't know' phenomena is alive and well.
Some reseachers say we're already 'overnetworked'. Victor Mayer-Schönberger of director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Center at the National University of Singapore has attempted to scientificially connect our social networking addiction with a notable lack of productivity. By 'defriending', Mayer-Schönberger argues we can get back on top of things again.
Even the former largest social networking site MySpace and its worrying decline in recent months is directly related to reports of 'overdoing it'. Members got tired of site-related spam, an overly abused and untapped friend system and a style of social networking that encouraged MySpacer users to solicit as many friends as possible. That might be perfect for band groupies, but a no-no for genuine networking.
It's not just the friending process that has people blaming themselves. It might also be the way we use social networking sites. In a recent Telegraph report, MySpace chairman and owner Rupert Murdoch blamed himself for the site's fall in popularity and was keen to point out the sites' difference to Facebook. According to that report, MySpace unique visitors dropped for the first time in the months leading up to July 09 ,with Facebook gathering up the slack.
At the end of the day, how many of us really know more than a handful of our friends on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter? And how many of those people do you ever see offline?
Microsoft's best attempt to get on board the social networking bandwagon was the $US13 million acquisition of Wallop. The site is now an app builder for other social networking sites.
In his speech, Gates spoke out against other modern "tools of tech" - he is not big on text messaging and prefers not to be a "24 hour tech person". So, don't expect a Microsoft-style Facebook anytime soon.
