Network Effects & Social Media

We all recognize that the network effect (the value of the tool grows exponentially based upon the number of users) applies to Social Media.  Who would want to be on Facebook, if there were only five users?  Alternatively, the barriers to joining new and more networks is incredibly low (how long does it take to register at Linked?).   Over the last month, I have become active on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Friendfeed and tested out at least another dozen tools/networks. At the same time, the emergence of applications that allow you post onto multiple networks at the same time (TweetDeck, ping.fm, HelloTXT, updatingme.com, tweecious, quub, etc.) allow me to not really have to participate in each network to remain active on the network. Does this trend increase or decrease the value of these networks.  I can not only update every network, but I can receive updates from every network utilizing these tools.  Am I still really a member of the network, or is my network ping.fm and everything else is really just noise?  I am not sure, but I can tell you that I am spending significantly more time trying to pick the best application to manage my posting and my reading other’s posts than I am on any specific social media network.