On social networks
I am in a denial mode when it comes to social networks. For the record, I have never been on MySpace, Facebook, or Hi5. I am also off every one of them: Ryze, Orkut, and even the most professional of the lot: Linked In.
By launching OpenSocial API, Google—the 800-pound gorilla—debunked the ‘yes, yes, no, no’ syndrome—on social networks—with a resounding ‘yes.’ They are trend followers, not trend setters, so I can’t blame them. I certainly don’t blame them for putting their mouth where the money is.
I may be among the very tiny minority, but I do think that social networks are:
- For dumbtards1 who are inept at having their own private communities, or incapable of building their own websites and having a community around them, or both.
- For media and web companies monetizing by using those dumbtards as guinea pigs, and getting them to click on everything dished out, advertisements in particular.
- For market researchers who are trying to hard sell concepts and benefits of a user community to their clients, while the dumbtards stay blissfully unaware of their behaviors tracked—without consent.
Let me back up a bit. The longest social network I have ever been on was Linked In. It came close to being part of a community I care about. But after a few years on it, I realized the lack of benefits I thought it would bring—new contacts, new opportunities, contributions (useful or otherwise) by those new or old in your circle of friends, contacts.
My assessment is that unless you live in a complete community isolation, you can do well in your own networking—friends, colleagues, ex-colleagues, school friends, neighbors and acquaintances—not to mention the entire internet.
I may be old school, but I believe that best functioning communities are those on mailing lists. No shitty scrapbooks, no request for contacts or recommendations, no virtual request for pass-the-baton stuff. And they get work done too. I’d like to know how many active communities—who really get work done—are on Facebook, or Orkut, or on any other social network?
As far as I know, everyone of those GTD communities are on their own mail lists. They dish out solutions before you can compose your next email. Have you seen it happening in these so called web 2.0 social networks?2 I haven’t seen one, but I am open to being enlightened.
Direct networking is more like picking a phone up3, introduce yourself, and be your best. Works just as it always has. In a social network(ing site), you’re leaving a debris of blunders, disasters—unintentionally without realizing it will come back to haunt you—as scraps, comments, and the occasional farting—all open to the entire population, not to mention nosy marketing types digging around your community trying either to get something, or trying to influence the group in some way. And how many people really think about this is a good question in itself.
Have you ever asked yourself before joining why you want to join Orkut, how does it benefit you personally? If you’re out to just have fun, date, pose as someone else there, and are sticking around farting casually, then this post isn’t applicable to your good self. Go back to sleep. But if you’re awake, you’ll do well by asking yourself some serious questions; because these networks mean more to their providers, much less to you as a person.4
These may be extreme views, but they’re mine. And yes, this is a rant.5
- From Fake Steve’s cliched vocabulary. [←]
- And please, I don’t want to hear the argument that mail lists are social networks. They’ve existed long before some bright spark came up with that term. [←]
- You can do that with email too. [←]
- See what I mean? [←]
- The door, by the way, never closed for those wanting to walk out. [←]