admit it – in marketing terms, I could hardly be described as an early adopter. It took me years to get a smart phone, I still don’t have a kindle and, as far as social networking is concerned, I was very much a late bloomer. I came to Facebook, at a friend’s suggestion, way after everyone else had started talking about it. To this day, I have a such paltry number of ‘friends’ that if I were inclined to base my self esteem on such things, it would make me feel pretty darn unlikeable.

Still, once I was on it, I got it. I totally got it. Despite a relatively tiny audience, I have, over the last couple of years, posted innumerable photographs of my beloved offspring for people to view, and ‘like’. And like them, they apparently do. It’s nice.

But then, then, someone introduced me to Twitter. In fact, a fellow writer friend had been trying to tempt me onto it for years, and I’d resisted, concerned that I’d waste too much time there. But one slow day I decided to give it a go. Immediately, I was hooked.

I find the infinitely customisable combination of minute-by-minute news and amusing, slightly smart-arsey, asides utterly compelling. And, as someone who spends a lot of time alone in front of a computer, the immediacy of the Twitter-based social connections and the ready availability of light banter have become something of a lifeline. Do I waste too much time there? Totally. But I love it. I am in love, with an entire social medium.

Where was I? Oh yes. So, the thing is that back in the day, before we were merrily sharing details of our breakfasts with perfect strangers, and pictures of our ultrasound scans with our primary school classmates, we just had to talk to people instead. And if someone moved thousands of miles away – or even to the next town, well, then we’d probably be down to phone calls and a couple of snapshots inside a Christmas card. But is the new-found total inability to lose touch with anyone, ever and the willingness to chat with people we’ve never met a good thing? Or does it get in the way of real life?

In an attempt to answer this, I asked a few friends, who are also parents, for their views on social networking – from Facebook, to Twitter, via Mumsnet and Netmums. What I got back surprised me a little bit. For a start, not everyone uses it. One friend, whose globetrotting lifestyle I would have thought should have made her an ideal candidate for keeping in touch through Facebook replied, “I am a social networking illiterate – no use to you – sorry!” Another uses it, but reluctantly. “I feel a sense of obligation to embrace social media. It’s like a burden – the feeling that if I don’t I’ll be left behind.”

And even those who I know to be keen Facebook users were not as glowing in their praise as I’d expected. “The people that I am really close to, I call or Skype. But for those people that you care about, but you don't talk on the phone with, Facebook is a nice tool.” Another friend, however, did admit to enjoying a little bit of light Facebook stalking in her spare time. “The voyeur in me likes to peek. For example, I have friends from my primary school that I don't really talk to, but sometimes it's fun to check out their lives.”

Despite this apparent ambivalence, there is no doubt that Facebook et al are having some kind of effect on our offline lives. I know of numerous couples who have met on social networking sites, and my brother and his wife conducted much of their inter-continental courtship through the medium of Facebook. Twitter is a notorious flirt-fest, to the extent that one single parent who I follow tweeted, at the beginning of the year, that her resolution for 2012 was to find a boyfriend from somewhere other than Twitter.

Personally, while I use Facebook primarily to share photos of my son with family and friends, I see Twitter as an opportunity, much of the time, to cast aside my role as a parent. As a parenting journalist, and with much of my ‘real life’ social contact being at the school gate, it’s refreshing to hang out, at least virtually, with people who don’t primarily know me as a mother. A good Twitter friend of mine concurs with this view. “What I love about Twitter is that it’s about me as a whole person. I can comment on X Factor, discuss race issues, mention kid anecdotes, moan about work, try and be funny, flirt, post personal blogs etc. It’s easier to be more than one thing.”

Both Twitter and Facebook can be sources of support in times of parenting crisis, and the relative anonymity of Twitter means that people feel free to post things that they wouldn’t share on Facebook. “I wouldn't say 95% of what I tweet on Facebook,” says my tweeting friend, “because of the anonymity, and also because the tone of Twitter feels different – it seems okay to tweet a thought or feeling that might be controversial. I've used Twitter to keep my cool and patience when my six or eight year old, or worse, both, is having a tantrum. Eight years ago, there wasn't really any other way to get support or information outside of family or friends. Now, the whole world is at your fingertips.”

Personally, I use Mumsnet as a source of useful information, though I’m a little scared of the robust turn that debate sometimes takes in the forums, so I tend to search previous discussion threads for answers to my questions, rather than engaging directly with other users. “You get advice or experiences from other parents that you wouldn’t normally get from your friends,” says one of my friends; though others are deterred by Mumsnet’s reputation. “I just have a perception that it's lots of people preaching to each other or moaning.”

Of course, powerful though they are, social networks are by no means invulnerable - does anyone remember MySpace? I have to admit that, since I became enchanted by Twitter, I hardly visit Facebook – and I’m not the only one. As the oft-tweeted cliché goes, “Twitter makes you like people you’ve never met, and Facebook makes you dislike people you already know.” In fact, though it continues to be very popular, Facebook’s share of social network use in the UK declined last year, suggesting that the time might be ripe for something new. As someone who generally comes late to the party, I am hardly the best person to suggest what that something might be, but the same friend who lured me onto Twitter recently suggested that I should join Path, a phone-based app that emulates Facebook’s connections with friends and family, but limits the size of the network – the idea being that it includes people you’re relatively close to, but not everyone with whom you’ve ever shared a classroom or office, however briefly.

One thing I feel fairly sure of is that whatever the future holds, it will include online social networks in some form or other, and we will continue to have the opportunity spice up our lives through contact with friends who are far away, and repartee with people we’ve never met. But, as one internet-savvy friend of mine says, it’s a fun accessory to the rest of life, not a replacement for it. “The internet and social media are a great source for parents, but spending time with family and living your life is more important than sharing it on social media sites.”

At the end of the day, online social networks, like all forms of communication that have preceded them, are a just tool for making contact with others. The people I get on best with on Twitter, I end up meeting up with in real life too. Social networks might help us to stay in touch with old friends, and even find new ones, but they’ll never completely take the place of sitting down with a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, and having a good old fashioned, face-to-face, conversation.