Another social networking site?
Okay. So back in the nascent days of Friendster, I signed up. It was fascinating for about two weeks. And then, after I uncovered all of the famous people I was connected to, I couldn’t see the point. THEN I got invited to the early days of MySpace and everyone kept saying it was better than Friendster. They stopped using Friendster and went full tilt for MySpace. As far as I could see, it was pretty much just like Friendster, except for the ability of bands or writers I liked to make bulletin board posts telling me when they’d be in my neck of the woods. And also, up-and-coming bands could see my listed influences and could write and suggest I give their band a listen, too, based on that. A nice quirk, but not what I’d call a huge value add. And it was just a pain in the ass to keep checking THAT email and Friendster’s along with all my other email accounts. I also didn’t get the point of adding loads of random strangers to my “friends” list who weren’t asking to be added to actually get to know you, but rather just to make a point. And it seemed like such a huge time suck.
So then along came Facebook and Twitter, and I just said no. Enough is enough. No one can convince me that Facebook is doing anything more advanced than MySpace was, other than the annoying clever little widgets you can set up for your friends. And as for Twitter, are there actually people who want to know what all their friends and blog contacts are thinking at every moment of the day? I mean, I love you people, but I don’t really want to know that much about you. Moreover, why would I want to share the fact that I just woke up, or that I ate a bowl of grits, or whatever, with a bunch of people. Do they really need to make sure that I’ve woken up and eaten every morning? And am I so dependent on the responses of others that I really need to insta-publish every clever thought that comes into my brain right that second? And then read everyone else’s thoughts and responses? Ugh. It just sounds like a huge time suck.
I don’t want to be contactable when I’m out in the world away from the phone and email. I want some mental space from you people to just be alone with my thoughts.
So yeah, I wrote them off as being a Friendster or MySpace but with even more time suck. So I figured I’d ride that trend out being untrendy.
But…there have been a few social networking sites that seem to have an actual usefulness to them. LinkedIn, for example, where you can network professionally. Say you need–or a friend needs–a new job. You can email your contacts asking if they know of anything and they can email theirs, and through this chain you may get a good lead or two. There’s also Meetup, which allows you to connect and meet offline with groups of people in your area who share similar interests–even if those interests are kind of obscure. I’ve met a number of friends that way. And there’s also Yelp, where members write up reviews of shops, bars, and restaurants in their local cities. A GREAT resource for finding the best place to get a haircut in town, or for where to hang out when you’re on vacation. So I joined LinkedIn and Meetup, and I use Yelp all the time. And of course sites like Flickr and YouTube are great sources for finding images and video I want. Even though I tend to not think of them as the same kind of social networking, they really are.
So I like social networking with a POINT or a USE. But so many of the others I mentioned earlier seem completely pointless, other than the ego stroke they provide. Which I’m not really feeling a need for.
And now, someone’s just sent me an invite to Bebo. Seriously, I gotta ask–how many sites do people want to maintain at one time? Doesn’t it seem like it would just be better to go out and actually do some stuff with your friends, rather than connecting with them at a distance, while you’re still alone? And maybe like, engage your long-term memory for a change?
Does anyone else think about this like I do? Or am I having one of those “grrr, you kids, get off my lawn” moments?
And okay…sigh…does anyone know about Bebo? Is it worth joining? Is it ANY different than any of the others? What other things are the current up-and-comers in the social networking world? Any better or worse than any of the ones I’ve just mentioned?
Posted by dea on Jul 12, 2008 in tech/geek ·
Tags: internet, redundancy, social networking
Bebo is essentially the same as Myspace and Facebook, there’s no point having all three as far as I can see, although I do because I have different friends on different ones. I spend far too much time on them, looking at my friend’s profiles and keeping everything up-to-date. I can’t help but feel I could be doing something more productive with my time. It’s the easiest way to keep in contact with friends, but part of me thinks that if you can’t make the effort to call them or meet up with them maybe they’re not much of a friend anyway.
Still, saying that I use all three regularly so that I don’t have to do anything more taxing to find out what everyone’s up to and how they’re feeling. All my friends use them so if you don’t, you’re left out of the loop. I just think it’s a shame because it makes everything less personal.
Is there anything about Bebo that sets it apart? I would think there must be *some* new feature that makes people think it’s worth the move from Facebook or Myspace.
I can’t see that there’s anything that makes bebo different. I think it’s easier to personalise your profile, but that’s about it. The three all keep copying each others idea and getting more and more similar, so anything that may have set it apart before probably doesn’t now.
I’m with you. There are too many social sites that take way too much time to maintain. The only ones I use are Delicious and Twitter. I resisted Twitter for a while but alot of my blogger and local friends use it. I find it is fun to keep up with my friends and it’s been an impetus for several of the local bloggers to meet up.
I have a very neglected MySpace only because I wanted to explore a local band’s space. I never use it.
I really keep in touch the old fashioned way by email for friends and reading & commenting on blogger-friends’ blogs.
Bebo? No thanks. Too much stuff to keep up with is stressful to me.
The explosion of social sites is basically various organizations racing to cash in. For some reason mySpace is currently winning, with facebook a close second (neither for any technical reason; they both have serious problems in interface logic and interface technology).
The thing is, these sites are only as good as the people who contribute, just like the USENET news groups or the mailing lists of twenty years ago or the forum sites of ten years ago. They’re built, people show up, there’s a giddy phase, then a stable phase, then a desertion phase as people move on. It’s wholly predictable in curve if not in duration.
The bottom line is, these sites all suck when they start; they may then have a golden age when cool people are on them, but they suck again as soon as they drown in load and cool people leave. Orkut was a perfect example of this; it had a great interface and was *amazing* for six months, then crashed hard when the spam bots found a way in and the people who gave it it’s feel started to leave. It’s still there now, but it’s worthless; not due to features, but due to who left and who stayed.
The bells and whistles that mySpace and facebook have added are still bright shiny things that are attracting people; but they’ll hit and end to relevancy any day now and someone else will step up with a new concept.
My point; we make these things, we break them. It doesn’t matter which site, only who’s where.
I (mostly) agree with Karl. As for bebo: you can skip it, it was over 3 years back.
In terms of other ones that work, it depends upon the extra functionality. I don’t use flickr, but I believe it’s here to stay based upon the number of other people I know who still use it after 4years.
I was part of the original Orkut phenomenon, and nothing’s ever really replaced it for me. Again, as Karl says, it was about the chemistry, the unique blend of just the right people. Mostly now I use facebook to keep in touch with my family and people in town and one other site to keep in touch with the old gang, hoping against hope that like wandering mongols they’ll settle down eventually and find a new place to call home.
You boys and your nostalgia for Orkut…go on and rub it in that I got in on that too late.
Anyway, I’d certainly be into trying a new version of SN if it had any real, new benefits I could see. I always like to try the latest thing, if it adds something. But Twitter to me is just a distractor.
I’m not bothering with Bebo. All of you seem to be implying it’s useless.
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