You know what? I don't need a social networking tool. Actually, I don't think I even want one. Communications tools, now that's different. I'm using twitter and pownce (hey, Akela, aren't you supposed to pownce on things that twitter?), and about the only thing that would improve them for me (aside from them actually being, you know, reliable) is to hide away the lists of who is connected to who. That's information that I personally find to be both unnecessary and often actively misleading - your mileage may vary. I don't like misleading, personally.
I can't say as I've looked at a myspace page more than six times. I've never even seen facebook. I'm on LinkedIn, but is it actually useful to me? Not yet, no. Mostly they feel like a sort of webified way of wearing gang-colors. To associate yourself with brands, whether those are ideas, interests, hobbies or people. There are assorted third-party sites that add social-networking tools to Second Life, too. I can't say as they interest me either.
My friends list in Second Life, and my (kind of inadequate) groups list are tools that allow me to act or to communicate more effectively with than without. That's why I've got a blog, not a homepage. Social networking tools don't appear to afford me the benefits that I'm looking for, in exchange for the time spent.
Does the whole social-networks scene leave you a bit cold, or is there some sort of warm and fuzzy thing that I'm just plain missing here?
1. I've gotten machinima jobs from both LinkedIn and Facebook. They're not for everyone, but if you're in a certain circle of people or profession, it's useful.
Posted at 10:24PM on Jul 18th 2007 by moo Money