Asi joined the group “If this group Reaches 150,000 members I will name my son Batman”
by asi
Note: this is not a smug rant on facebook. I’m all there, collecting friends, poking people, and joining different groups like there’s no tomorrow. So it’s more of a reflecting-out-loud:
we now witness with facebook what can only be described as a massive herd moving in by their millions and i can’t help but being rather skeptic.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for connectivity, ambient intimacy and phatic communications etc. but I honestly believe that until the moment social networking applications will be of a more meaningful value, we will all be hoping from one internet darling to the other. (seems like the struggle just begun?)
it’s alright to stay in touch with your friends, join some incredibly stupid communities and generally avin’ a laugh, but although I believe that something meaningful will eventually come out of this, I currently can’t see the sustainability in it.
take plannersphere as a case in point. first we had plannersphere wiki, then we all moved to plannersphere on ning, and now we all getting on plannersphere on facebook. whats the point in all that? what are we doing there? do we really need these multiple platforms?
personally, the great, valuable, interesting stuff comes from our personal blogs – thats the only social media that feels for me like it’s here to stay. i might be naive or idealistic or both but I’m still looking for social media that has value beyond the buzz.
I don’t mean that facebook should be all about spreading democracy (in a subtler way that mr. bush does…). what i’m looking for is more like the ways in which the music communities on myspace changed the world of music, or the ways in which blogs have changed the media, politics and education.
facebook hype and enthusiasm feels to me like a passing fad, that after a while the media and people’s interest will wane and we’ll all be re-connecting in the next hyperbole.
anyway, i hope i’m wrong and in the meantime, I’m joining the group: “Don’t tell my mum I’m in advertising – she thinks I play piano in a brothel”
mate, wake up, you’re looking for too much meaning in social life. People move from one social networking site to another in the same way that they’re moving from one trendy bar to another. Nothing new about that. The only constant is that there will always be A trendy bar (site). Socializing is meaning. Also, as in bars, at some point you stop moving with the herd (too old for this s**t) and settle down in your favorite one (blogging). At some point, as we all know, you move on from this one as well…Anyway, you’ll still be able to find me. At home
on one level, we’re just hanging out, and is there ever any point to that, really?!
beyond socialising. but the question of deriving real, practical value, i don’t know asi, i think it may be early days to see how this pans out.
a couple of more near-term areas that i would keep an eye out for though in the evolution of facebook (and other social networks, but facebook is the obvious leader at this point).
-shopping and commerce leveraging trusted networks (amazon will lead here)
-making linkedin obsolete would be easy for facebook at this point. job searching and referrals from the network would be another way for the medium to introduce value for members.
but beyond these types of valuable services, it will be just as interesting to observe the evolution of flow and presence withing social media (i love stowe boyd’s thoughts on this); for that, we’re barely in the crawling stages, so don’t be so quick to pass judgement!
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hey dude. I mostly agree with that guy above. however, I do think facebook has cracked social media (basically profiles, links to friends) for a more mainstream audience of people our age, mainly due to being really well put together. But also they cracked the immediacy, continuous-partial-attention side of human gossip. The newsfeed – recognising that essentially, people love knowing who’s doing what to who. I watch people int he office on facebook all the time, and girls especially just spend endless time clicking on people they know and seeing which people they also know, or who’s attending what events and stuff, or who’s said what to who. It’s the fuel of life.
I feel that now facebook is just going to become a fuzzy address book with smalltalk engine, and sure, a better one might come out soon, but I don’t think there’s anything too profound about it.
also, I quit my job! handed in months notice last week, and will be freelancing for a bit I think, nothing major lined up or anything… hope all’s well
hey asi, did you see this:
http://www.bigshinything.com/if-july
by the way asi, you do know you’ve been appointed an officer in the plannersphere group, right?
thanks guys for your absolutely spot on comments. as I said, i’m there, having great time with this damn time-sucker playground… it is all very well put together and highly addictive.
let’s see how long will it last….I’m eager to see what will remain of it all after the hype. it might be even better.
trully yours,
officer no man’s.
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