You know you’re getting old when you have to find out about the latest internet memes and trends from your wife. Well, today, I learned what Formspring is. It’s a social network where people can post questions anonymously. I wasn’t aware niches could exist in social networking like consumer products. Calling all super-private people who like Facebook-stalking without the transparency! I can see why people would want to post anonymous questions without feeling ashamed. Am I the only person who Google’d what kale is?
Tumblr has been around for a while now, but I think it’s hitting critical mass. It may be just me, but I am exhausted with all the maintenance from my social networks. I’ve been keeping track of my social network trends and here’s what I’ve found:
1) I visit Facebook 10X+ per day. I mostly log on to check updates and occasionally wish someone a birthday… even people I haven’t talked to in years. Birthdays are a good excuse to jump back into the “friendship” zone.
2) I log into LinkedIn once a week. I used to spend more time in LinkedIn, but ever since I started business school, I haven’t felt compelled to keep up with the goings-on of my former colleagues. I do think the TripIt notifications are interesting. I didn’t know my network liked to travel so much!
3) I log into Twitter 4X per day. However, I don’t say much. In my opinion, Twitter is a place for one of two things: 1) really witty one-liners or 2) RT’ing random articles on how social media will change the world.
Sidebar: It may not be internet-prudent to say the following on such a public forum, but I’ll say it anyway… I think there are A LOT of expert wannabes on Twitter. Everyone (I mean this as a hyperbole) seems to be a Twitter expert or Social Media Maven of some sort. Last time I checked, you need a bit more strategic talent to become an expert at something. Just because you have a large following doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing. I would never hire a consultant or agency who only has a Twitter presence. Sadly, I’ve heard of many people getting gigs from Twitter… it just breaks my heart. I haven’t been doing marketing for that long, but I know poo poo when I see it.
*off my soapbox*
4) I have a Tumblr account, but I just let it run on its own. I log into Tumblr once every three weeks. I’ll give Tumblr credit for having an extremely vibrant community. I see people interacting with stranger’s posts all the time. If only I had that much to say.
My general thought about social media is that we will one day combine all our networks into one. Some people say it will be Google Buzz. Others say it will be a Facebook + Google combo. My theory is that there won’t be a social network. In fact, I think we will all have some form of a RSS-like feed. In the future, there will be a standardized format for all feeds (like RSS) and it will be decentralized. Instead, we will use mini-platforms or browsers that will specialize in reading these feeds. If you want to keep up with someone, you’ll just subscribe to the feed manually. It all happens outside of a network (i.e. an environment that requires log-in access). I know privacy is the main concern, but as we approach the cloud (uh oh, more futurist lingo), it will be easier to turn access to a site on or off.
This entry had no point other than to entertain me for ten minutes. I also wanted to time stamp my thoughts and come back in ten years and revisit my antiquated ideas.
P.S. if you like social theory, particularly about technology, give me a holla
