Actions Speak Louder Than Words..or Words Speak Action?

Do people actually mean what they say anymore? Or has social networking proved that words, not actions, or just enough to get by?

A million different things have been plaguing my mind lately, never resting, constantly zooming in and out of my mind at every hour of the day. I found that one question in particular has been a reoccurring theme within my daily anxieties that persist to manifest themselves into some compulsive cleaning,  impulsive exercise, and mini melt downs. Although the house has been spotless, not to  mention my car, driveway, closet (among many other things, the thought still continued to poke around in my conscious.

It happened when I woke up one morning, browsing through Facebook, eating my self made concoction of cinnamon oatmeal and Nutella, that I finally realized were this annoying thought/ feeling was coming from…words without any action or meaning.

You have done it, we all have done it at some point in our lives, agreed to something or suggested something to someone that we knew we would never follow through with. Being both the giver and receiver of future actions never to be completed, I have come to realize that this has become increasingly acceptable…and even forgivable, especially if the talked about action is communicated through Networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and even sometimes e-mail. For example, when a friend you have not spoken with for a while messages you on Facebook or MySpace asking you “why haven’t we hung out for so long? Let’s do lunch sometime next week.” And you, having no idea what your work or school schedule will be like next week as well; still agree to it, realizing that even though your words agree to action, you are more than likely not going honor the commitment you just made.

So why did you agree to this in the first place, when you knew that it probably was not going to happen? That is exactly my question. Where did backing up your words with genuine integrity disappear to? Is it the fact that social networking sites are so casual that no one really takes things seriously on them? Or is it the fact that it is way easier to be a flake, since you are not communicating with this person face to face? Either way the issue still remains, can you really trust the words your friends are typing to you on these sites, or should you only take them at face value?

Have networking sites condoned a society where action-less words and empty promises are forgivable? Have we become a society of flakes?