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Is Social Networking Becoming Increasingly Narcissistic and Time Consuming (Or Is It Just My Age Catching Up With Me??)
I may be a relative Luddite or perhaps a little antisocial, as I don't even give out my cell phone number much or use the thing other than for very specific purposes! I've been blogging for a long time, but MySpace and Facebook may be about as far as I want to take it and some of that has been experimental! These can be definite black holes of time consumption. MySpace offers infinite ways to personalize the page and Facebook lets people be pirates, throw food and be kids in many respects. Both have potential for political activity, artistic and musical networking and much more. I get invitations to join other social networking sites and now I delete them. I am maxed out. Do we have any idea how much data these people are collecting about us? Doesn't Rupert Murdoch own MySpace? Doesn't he own FOX News? Should we be wondering?
Now it's en vogue to "tweet" on Twitter and I have not figured it out entirely and am questioning whether to. Daniel Schorr (who is in his 90s but still comments at NPR) had kind of laugh at the idea this morning on NPR. "Why do people do it?" has asked, and the interviewer didn't seem to really have an answer! 140 keystrokes - that's how long a message can be! I can see text messaging someone but the whole world? Our "followers"? Or "following" someone? Can someone please explain this to me? I can't stay on top of emails!
I enjoyed reading what Lee Woodruff at Daily Beast had to say about it all:
How far are we from the minutiae of someone’s stomach virus, a lost button on a favorite pair of corduroys or, to steal loosely from the late John Updike, the announcement of a perfectly coiled bowel movement in the bowl after the morning’s first cup of Joe?
I do enjoy the fact that Greg Palast follows one of our blogs, and that I am a Facebook "friend" of people like Ann Magnuson and Max Blumenthal, who I think are intensely cool! It blows me away that these sites have people on them from all over the world! I may be reaching the breaking point though!
More from Lee (Is there a way I can be her "friend?!")
I don’t need to know that someone just visited their office vending machine for Doritos or that they are about to take their Shit-zu for a walk. I don’t want to know that kind of info about my own husband.
Again, who are these people who are Twittering back? If they are employed, shouldn’t they be (particularly in this economy) putting their noses to the grindstone? Shouldn’t they be concerned for their jobs, laboring away at their desks, working the phones, hopping to, rather than twittering away about last night’s bad Chinese food? And what if they aren’t employed? What if they are kicking about at home, maybe a wife or hubby just hanging out while the kids are at school, or someone in transit on a train or bus. Don’t these people have better things to do then telegraph their where-abouts? Isn’t there laundry to throw in, some real news to catch up on online or a good book to read? Books. Remember them? They came off a printing press. What about a little do-gooding in the community, English as a second language to teach, a PTO board to assist. How about, God forbid, an honest good old-fashioned moment of repose and reflection?
I am not embarrassed to post this and be all "uncool" and not Twitter (or is it "Tweet" ON Twitter?) So far I just can't face the fact of having a sea of messages on my cell phone or having to do anything social in real time (other than in person) and I don't have a great attention span in the first place! I can't even send pictures, which makes it a little too "wordy" for me, a little too "left-brained"!
I’m not gonna go all retro on you here. I know I sound a bit like Archie Bunker. I’ll be the first to admit that instant communication has a premiere place in my universe. My BlackBerry enables me to stay slightly on top of the pile while out of the office. And I’m not saying I’m never, ever going to join Twitter—I learned long ago never to say never. But people—let’s use a little moderation here. Get back to your desks. Go read an article in the New Yorker. You remember those, don’t you? Magazines?
Except magazines are going monthly (US News & World Report), upscale (Newsweek), small (Rolling Stone) and newspapers are going online or extinct (SF Chronicle, Seattle PI, Rocky Mountain News.) Is it because everybody is too busy "communicating?" Actually, I think it's because of a drop in advertising revenue and the fact that everyone is on-line, but don't the social networking sites also expose people to a whole new level of overt and subliminal "targeted" advertising? Wasn't it just last week or so that Facebook's new Terms of Service which allowed them to keep all content indefinitely were challenged by users and had to be altered? We need to examine the social and political implications of every new change in communication technology. On the one hand, we talk about Big Brother, the Patriot Act and privacy - on the other, we like to enjoy being social creatures with a sense of connection in our busy lives. Where is the balance?
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I've made enough blunders on my little foray into Facebook that I can't be bothered with joining - and learning - much else. I don't have many friends on Facebook, but more than enough for me to maintain. I'm still learning what it's about. But I do wonder how on earth other people are able to maintain daily communication on the damned thing. Once I get the papers read online and email dealt with, phone calls made and texts responded to, walking to swimming every day, I need the other 3 waking hours to work!
I discovered recently the value of photos being sent to my phone. My son tells stories through the eyes of his 2 year old daughter and includes running photos with the story. The last was about the *geek* (gecko) that suddenly appeared on her bedroom wall. She's looking sad and frightened in that picture. The next says where it is on the wall - photo of Logan pointing at it - can you see him, Granny? And finally, she has decided that it means her no harm and has just come to her room to catch the *bites* (spiders) with its tongue so they will not hurt her.
If I just get one of these series of messages every month or two, I'd say I'm getting enormous value from my phone. I no longer have a landline which is wonderful. The telemarketers don't bother me on my mobile.
My long-term-real-time-friends of 40 + years have pointed out that we use it to share photos - we've been much the same group with additions over the years. Their kids have hundreds of friends - we have about 10 or 20 each. It's useful in that respect. No longer any need to send emails to all and sundry. It's useful too for other groups like for me staying updated with Tasmania's Ten Days on the Island festival of the arts which is soon to begin for this year. Lots of wonderful free stuff to go to.
One friend worries about the voyeuristic nature of Facebook. God - how boring our own life must be, if we need moment by moment intimate details of others. I think it's a bit of all three actually - Narcissistic, time consuming and age catching up.
I have toyed with facebook just for photos/family interaction but have not yet jumped into the frey..I am trying to cut back on computer time, not increase it.
Twitter? no need for me-altho reaading about othersscrewing up on it does provide a smile from time to time...
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing at Facebook. I definitely haven't got the hang of this Web 2.0 stuff yet.
Social networking is defined as the grouping of individuals together into to specific groups, often like a small community for RH302 questions and PMI-001 questions. But what about the use of social networking at small businesses? For example what will the social networking at N10-003 questions business on a website?