I am happy to see a writer blogging for the sake of it! 
I have been writing all my life, and I started blogging as a job for my charity, Cars4Causes. I also blog for myself on Intent.com, which is a real interesting community of writers. I am interested in social media from a business standpoint, but mostly because I want to get the word out about the good work we do here. For myself, I have been on Myspace for a couple years, and didn't even know about all the other sm out there until I started online for my job. I agree with your high-school clique analogy completely, but there are also some real generous and wise people out there who are trying to give a hand to the small time players, and are willing to share what they know to benefit others. I am enjoying the process, as well as the opportunity to get paid for spending my days on the Internet! My daughter's complaint? I don't ever go on my personal Myspace anymore.After spending all day at the office watching Twitter and doing other social media as well as blogging 2 posts a week for C4C http://blog.cars4causes.net  I hardly go online for myself anymore! Ah, balance, where for art thou? 
Great blog, keep it up! Cheers! V.