« | Home | »

This Twit Won’t Twitter

Topics: Lifestyle & Culture | 3 CommentsBy admin | February 5, 2009

I’ve created sample accounts on over thirty social networking sites as research for clients, which is why I’ve watched the recent explosion on Facebook of users over forty with considerable amusement*. I remember well the feeling I got when, as an 18-year-old, I went from being so far on the fringe of pop culture that [...]

I’ve created sample accounts on over thirty social networking sites as research for clients, which is why I’ve watched the recent explosion on Facebook of users over forty with considerable amusement*. I remember well the feeling I got when, as an 18-year-old, I went from being so far on the fringe of pop culture that there wasn’t a name for it, to suddenly being called “Punk” by “normal” people. Just about as soon as I got used to the idea that maybe I WAS punk, everyone suddenly started taking the worst aspects of whatever I was and basing whole music genres and movies on it. Before I knew it, my friends and I had gotten normal just to avoid the creepy older people that were mimicking us. This must be a little bit like what it feels like to be an 18-24 year old MySpace or FaceBook user the past few years. First they had to watch the oldsters creep in on MySpace, pimping out their pages like high-schoolers. Recently MySpace feels like 4am at a 30-year high school reunion; only the socially inept and drunk late-comers are still hanging around. Facebook should be suffering a similar fate by mid-year, leaving kids to Twitter desperately in a difficult economy. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see new text message pricing plans that gouge these users. I for one don’t see myself opening my mobile device up to this kind of shenanigans, causing the return of the nearly-extinct fail whale (pictured here). Maybe I’ll take up knitting and join Ravelry. Any suggestions for where to go with my social networking addiction?

*Confession: I’ve used Facebook addictively the last few weeks myself.

Read Comments

  1. Posted by TeacherPatti on 02.05.09 11:39 am

    I was wondering the same thing re: my next social networking site. I love my Facebook, but I fear it’s ready to jump the shark :(
    I never “got” MySpace…the few times I went on, the sites were obnoxious and it was just a bunch of people saying “Thanks for the add!” I do use Twitter, and it’s handy if you are organizing lunch or a night at the bar, but otherwise I don’t find it that useful.

  2. Posted by Dojo Nick on 02.08.09 12:22 am

    Don’t you think the next big thing will have to have an element that hasn’t appeared in the spate of current social networking sites? Everything coming out now is derivative of MySpace and Facebook, or a reaction to them (see partnerup.com, yoursphere.com, or Google’s friendconnect). I sort of like the idea of a networking evolution of Google Latitude (a map site that shows where all my friends are), but I don’t want anybody to know where I am.

  3. Posted by admin on 02.08.09 12:48 am

    Wow, Dojo Nick. And I thought I had seen the entire Internet. Didn’t know about Google Latitude. Personally, I’d like an aggregator tool that condenses any social networking activity in one place and helps manage the connections i.e.: if so-and-so is a poorly-connected node I never interact with, it would ask if I want to delete them, and do so with really concise text or e-mail notifications. It would also be nice if there were an analysis tool that told me exactly how foolish I was being at any given moment with a clever phrase like “dude, your usefulness as a human just diminished 63.4% by spending an hour commenting cleverly on FB friends’ clever comments on clever comments”. But I guess in some circles that’s called a “spouse”.