| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 |
| My thoughts on...social networking sites |
 Before I start, I guess I should explain my absence. My monitor was giving some colour trouble, and I had to send it to the shop for a full 7 days (not counting Saturday and Sunday). Now it's back, and showing better than ever. For the past few days I've been watching CNBC and I've been hearing all about the net worth of social networking sites like MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and so on, and the debates as to which will become the next Google, if any. Why are these sites so hot? My guess is because these sites feed people's egos. And how can we talk about social networking sites without talking about MySpace, where unpopular kids and narcissistic brats can both play high school popularity contest online, posting their best ever photos on their profiles just to get comments from horny strangers of the opposite sex, or see who can get the most "friends." I mean how can someone have over 1,000 friends?
Oh and let's not forget the movies, bands and events that have profiles, exploiting MySpace's audience of teens, the only demographic with 100% disposable income, a marketer's wet dream. And all of these social networking sites have profiles that look like the land that HTML forgot. We're advancing towards XHTML, but these profiles feature those damn glittery GIFs and colour combinations that would make your eyes bleed. I have a MySpace profile which I am totally inactive on. How inactive? I just signed on, then decided a couple minutes later that it was a complete waste of time. I have no friends, save the omnipresent Tom, no doubt there to prevent you from realizing the harsh reality that no one really does love you. Yet still I've gotten two friend requests! What the hell? To date I haven't responded. I don't have time to waste by adding to someone's friend count. One of their profiles was deleted. Why? I shudder to think.
That's why Hi5 and Facebook are more my style. Clean interface, more grownups and less sex offenders, though Hi5 has made some changes in order to keep up with MySpace. Personally, I use social networking sites to link to...wait for it ... ACTUAL FRIENDS. Sure, I may not have a rockstar's amount of friends. In fact I have barely have over 100 friends, but that's OK with me. Less crap in my inbox. So is social networking the revolution it was envisioned to be? Nope. In fact I don't know how sitting alone at your computer checking your profile every half hour for comments helps your social skills, but it sure is profitable. I guess if I want to become a millionaire, I need to create a site where countless people can waste their time, interact with others, feeling as if they're adding something to their lives. Funny. My blog hasn't made me a cent to this day.
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Posted by Leon
@ 5:47 PM
Permalink | Audiolink
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