Most people spending time on Facebook and similar sites seem almost exclusively interested in telling the rest of us more than we need to know about their business, personality, or relative importance in the world.

And how does getting irrelevant information about so many strangers keep me connected? It doesn’t, really. It makes me feel overwhelmed with TMI–too much information.

Thanks but no thanks. To connect with people whom I know have some interest in me, and to find information that’s actually pertinent and useful, I prefer to visit . . . my filing cabinet or address book.

There’s a surprising amount of human interaction going on in my files; all the correspondence, forms and queries tell great stories if you know how to read them. And my cabinets don’t try to decide what I should consider important, how long a document should be saved, or what that information might mean to my future success. The data in my files and notes describe exactly what I need to do, instead of who wants to be a “friend,” or how many of those people I can manage to add to my list.

Social media sites give off more heat than light. There are more productive ways to communicate what really matters to you and your “offline” community. You can start by getting a little more “friendly” with your filing system.