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Social Networks At A Crossroads
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:04 AM
from the start-of-something-new dept.
from the start-of-something-new dept.
mateuscb writes "A few years ago, social networking Web sites were just some newfangled technology that college students loved. But over time, they have metamorphosed into an unavoidable Internet phenomenon that is changing the way people of all ages keep in touch with friends, find long-lost acquaintances, explore new hobbies and even look for employment."
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unavoidable? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:unavoidable? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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Not everyone follows everybody else's "cultural trends". He needs to hang with friends who aren't so narrow minded.
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The initial draw was finding long-lost friends and aquaintences, but I keep going back for the social event organizing features. I still usually send out an email, but people's addresses change and sometimes someone gets missed. And if
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Re:unavoidable? (Score:5, Interesting)
My senior year of high school, cell phones were divided into two classes - "Mobile Phones" which were a brick with a handset attached that you kept in your car, and "Cellular Phones" which looked much like the phones you buy today but four times the size. Nobody who didn't have a full time job as a salesman had one.
Four years later, the mobile brick phones were gone, cell phones were cheap enough that almost everyone I knew had one, and Instant Messaging had become mainstream.
I noticed in that time that when they were constantly available, people became extremely loathe to make any concrete plans at all. Whereas four years before, I could say, "Hey, tonight lets meet at 7 at the club" and expect a yes or no response, after everyone had a cell phone the response was, "Well, uhh, just call me on my cell." Getting a group of people together was no longer a matter of setting a date time, and being able to reasonably expect them to show up, it now required 15,000 phone calls.
I don't know how it happened, but cell phones and IM turned everyone into 14-year-old girls.
Now if I'm expected to check your web site every day to see if you're having a party instead of the courtesy of a phone call or email, thanks, but no thanks.
As such, I don't blame your friend in the least for not wanting to participate in the drama of keeping in touch with people like that.
Parent
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You're assuming that my whole world revolves around providing entertainment for people with cell phones. It does not, as much as they like to think it does.
And I find the implicit "Well, sure, unless something better comes along" that goes along with the "maybe" to be insulting. There's something to be said for making a committment and keeping it, especially among friends.
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Re:unavoidable? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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Then how do you get your self-esteem, if you aren't using social networks?
Personally, I find insulting people's parentage on antisocial networks quite rewarding. Your mileage may vary. :-)
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I have nothing against the concept, it's just that the vast majority of social networking site users (especially Myspace) are people I do not want to have any contact with whatsoever.
"and even look for employment" (Score:5, Funny)
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Really? (Score:2)
Perfect Validation (Score:2)
I've been questioned like this before over the phone - a financial institution that questioned me asked me questions from "publicly available information" which "confirmed that I am who I say I am." (The way they did it was to ask me multiple choice questions about my address from
Linked In? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Linked In? (Score:5, Funny)
What the hell does that mean? Professional social networking?
Prostitutes? Drug dealers?
Parent
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Yes, if your 'massage therapist' or your 'herb specialist' check their email often, they would be included too.
Basically, it's anyone with work experience that has regular email access. I guess you could use your friendster account or your facebook account to network professionally, but most people (I believe) prefer to keep their personal lives separate from their professional ones (even if the separation is only on
Unavoidable? (Score:5, Funny)
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The irony is that when I went, Google showed an ad for a social networking site.
it makes sense (Score:3, Informative)
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I'm impressed thus far, although I would say I'm not too interested in continuing those friendships through an online site, each time its moved to real world visits, phone calls and emails. That I like.
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Re:it makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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Re:it makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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Same here. My ex was actually mildly stalking. The last thing I would ever do is to post lots of details of my private life so she could monitor me from the comfort of her home.
The situation is much worse for women and children. People browse those sites looking for victims and can use everything people post in them against them.
You are probably safer just leaving all the curtains to your house/apartment wide open 24 hours a
Grrrr... paid journalism... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fine Grained Privacy Is Not New (Score:3, Insightful)
The new imeem is way cooler.
"Unavoidable phenomenon" (Score:4, Interesting)
And here's the part I *don't* get -- all the comments from people saying "I don't have time to keep up with friends and family, but since I joined {Facebook/Myspace/etc} we can keep in touch and make new friends..." WTF? Maybe if you peeled your fat ass away from the computer and spent time with family and friends and maybe got involved with some activities you could make new friends.
Maybe its just Wall Street greed coupled with the myopia of 20 somethings.
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When I'm heading home for the summer, and I think to myself, "Hey, it would be cool to hang out with my old HS buddies. I wonder what they're up to." I can start up facebook, search for them by name, friend them, and get their phone numbers.
I don't have a little address book like my parents did until r
False assumption (Score:2)
Or MAYBE I can do BOTH! I frequently go out and converse with new people and make new friends... however I have some really good friends that I don't want to lose track of, and Facebook happens to provide a wonderful solution to that. If I had to correspond via letters, phone calls and long trips... I would have lost touch with many
In other news, green is the new black! (Score:4, Insightful)
But over time, they have metamorphosed into an unavoidable Internet phenomenon
I'd call this a sad commentary on the steadily advancing age-of-first-real-job, not an "internet phenomenon". YMMV. In any case, I've managed to avoid them quite well, thankyouverymuch.
changing the way people of all ages keep in touch with friends
No, not really. The afforementioned "college kids who haven't moved on yet" use it to keep in touch. The rest of us still use the phone or email or, wonder-of-wonders, physically meeting one another.
and even look for employment.
"Look". Not "find".
These folks have a rather rude awakening to look forward to... The rest of the world really doesn't give two shakes of a rat's ass about their pathetic little ego-pages. It doesn't care about their blogs, their favorite bands, their pictures of their cat/dog/iguana/fish-named-bob.
Your future employer doesn't care about Bob-the-fish. He cares that you have the ability to work, in person, with others, and get the job done. The fact that you can't differentiate between "friends" and "people you've never met but add to a counter on your website" doesn't really help with that.
Re:In other news, green is the new black! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd disagree...the fact that I have moved on (2000 miles from where 90% of my friends live) is precisely the reason I use it to keep in touch. It's not a substitute for phone calls, emails, and personal visits, but I can't afford a $300 trip to meet up for coffee with a friend, and time zone differences often makes phone convos difficult with more than immediate family. I think each form of medium has a place along a spectrum of options - personal visits -> video calls -> phone calls -> emails -> social networking blogs -> twitter -> shouting from a mountaintop.
These folks have a rather rude awakening to look forward to... The rest of the world really doesn't give two shakes of a rat's ass about their pathetic little ego-pages. It doesn't care about their blogs, their favorite bands, their pictures of their cat/dog/iguana/fish-named-bob.
But that's the great/worst thing about the Internet - you can put up anything, and whether anyone really cares is a moot point. But undeniably, there is someone is crazy enough to care.
Parent
Social networking seems kind of over (Score:5, Interesting)
Social networking sites seem to me to be kind of over. A few years ago I was active on a few of them; Tribe and Nerve were fun. But the fun sites are over. Myspace is just the new AOL.
Phone-based social networking is probably where things are going. Although, interestingly, the iPhone doesn't have social networking. Helio does, but nobody uses Helio.
Growth Rate Peaked Last Year (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.realmeme.com/roller/page/realmeme/?entry=social_networking_meme_verified [realmeme.com]
I predicted MySpace's peak in growth early in 2006, almost coincident to when it occurred. The introduction of Facebook's third party API is a sign of an industry entering a consolidated and standardization phase.
Social networking vs. real life (Score:2)
This is probably the first or second graduating class who spent their entire college career exposed to the social networking phenomenon. I think this is going to further drive apart the generational gaps that exist in workplaces.
I'm actually in the middle; I went to college just as the web was becoming popular. It was a really neat toy...sites like Yahoo and online retailers were just getting started. We used it just like that...a
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The other day I was watching 'The Big Sleep' (1946) with Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall. At one point the DA's man is taking down Bogart's testimony regarding a case. The camera cuts the the sheet of paper to reveal he is writing lines of what appear to me to be incomprehensible jibberish. I exclamed "What the hell lanquage is that?!" to which my girlfriend replied: "That's shorthand, its how people used to write quickly before touchtyping [wikipedia.org]".
Given that people commonly compose emails on thier phones or PD
Standards Now! (Score:2)
Why Don't I Like Social Networking Sites? (Score:2)
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The risks of interview candidates missing out on job opportunities because of MySpace profiles is a well-documented situation. I have seen real life examples of this.
Everything old is new again (Score:4, Insightful)
It's both amusing and frustrating to see the BBS spoken of as a technology of yesteryear, while mainstream Internet culture gets closer and closer to being an exact duplicate of BBS culture. Strip away all of the fancy buzzwords and you've basically got the same thing: people connecting to each other online.
As a BBS sysop of nearly 20 years (please visit us online!) [citadel.org] I can say with certainty that nothing has changed. Everything old is new again. And may I say to the "Web 2.0" and "social network" people: you didn't invent it.
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They're as much as social network as random forum about linux.
It's a PR hit (Score:2)
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It's like an e-peen about real life: "Hey everybody! Look at all the awesome stuff I'm doing IRL!! Aren't I awesome!!!two!11"
By the look of your post, it doesn't seem like you're missing anything at all -- just not for the reason you imply
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Your a Geek. It's Saturday. You're not doing anything else. You're hoping that, by some magic, Slashdot will help you with your (a)social life?
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