Comments on: Social networks become social handicaps

By: Exigency In Specie / You Haven’t Got Much in your Facebook Profile

Exigency In Specie / You Haven’t Got Much in your Facebook Profile — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:38:54 +0000

[...] Jen was having a similar issue as me, with people she knew joining the networks and moving their online presence within the walled gardens. Then she discovered something altogether more worrying about Facebook policy. [...]

By: linda

linda — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:35:45 +0000

Jen… I completely agree about social networks not being very social.

And may I add my two cents about blog directories? A person wants to promote their blog, but most of the directories require a login and password. WFT? Everyone just wants to create the logins so they can track behaviour.

Grrr…

By: shannon

shannon — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:48:51 +0000

Hi – Barry’s better half here (haha). I was bored at work and looking at his twitter (that sounds dirty) and came to your blog and this entry struck a cord.

I’ve also avoided most of the invitations to the social networks over the years because I honestly don’t care – it’s so often the same people I’m already connected with joining a new network to be amongst the first and therefore, “in”. I caved and joined Facebook only to find that all the excitement and addiction others have found there hasn’t existed for me and likely never will. I wasn’t particularly close to anyone I ever went to school with, but regardless, there’s always the curiousity of what are these people up to. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) my classmates are not involved in these sorts of things so there was no one to locate. (And all the stupid widgets/groups are just the most pointless and annoying things ever.) I too have deactivated my account and wished I had paid more attention when I signed up because, unfortunately, I did enter a bunch of info all of which I’ve now stripped from my account before deactivating.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. A friend (okay more of an acquaintance) and his business partner wrote a tool called Explode which allows you to link up your friends across various networks and have those comment conversations without having to join a new network and participate there since you can use your existing logon for one of the sites or an OpenID. Maybe it will be worthwhile for you and you can drop some of those extraneous networking sites… http://ex.plode.us/

By: Martin GD

Martin GD — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:12:48 +0000

But tehe Jen, you should see what we are saying about you on the social networks you haven’t joined

By: jEN

jEN — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:13:06 +0000

I guess I don’t mind the blog ‘comment conversations’ as much when the participants keep up with each other’s blogs. It’s when I’m pretty sure the effort is one-way that bugs me.

Mostly this post is about social networks being anything but. The fact that I have some very lopsided associations is a flaw I’ll readily admit and am not sure how I want to remedy. A couple of them will be easy enough to transition into meat-space… another couple of them, no so easy and will likely fade completely without my effort to sustain the current situation.

Probably worthy of a follow-up post when I make a move.

By: Mom

Mom — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:49:01 +0000

@ Daddy P. Fortunately, we do talk a lot–email, phone, iChat. She’s my best friend. I can tell her things I don’t tell anybody else, except my Mom. I’m lucky I have both of them to whine to I also talk to my dog a lot–he’s so understanding–when he’s awake, that is!

By: Jodi

Jodi — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:42:00 +0000

Mom I totally agree with you! I get really tired of people who complain everytime they see you that they never hear from you, but when you call or email them they don’t return your messages. I have friends and family that will only speak to me through text messages.

By: Daddy Papersurfer

Daddy Papersurfer — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:12:33 +0000

I don’t know what happened there – sorry