Is there a way that I can keep up with the news cycle, and all the places and organizations that I like to follow, without having my friends/family on it (or eventually finding out I'm on it). FB and twitter are great places for the former, since almost all companies and businesses have a FB or twitter. However, soon people you know are alerted to the fact that you're on the sites, and you surely end up getting requests to connect with those people. I'm just kindof burned out from the interactions and posts on FB from folks. (I don't like just blocking all my friends either.) I just want a place to keep in touch with my news/information and not too much else.
Like news in general, or a personalized news feed? For a personalized news feed, just get an RSS Feed Reader and plug in the feeds of sites you like.
You could set up a fake FB/Twitter profile. You could use an out-of-order version of your real name like Schmo Joe or a fake name altogether. I have two Twitter accounts that I can manage from my phone without having to log in separately under each one. Both are linked to my app. It's handy when I want to spend some time browsing and posting as myself and other times doing the same from my professional/boring account.
I was going to say just make a separate account for that stuff. I think there's a way for you to set FB so that people can't even write on your wall. If they send you messages just ignore them.