I’ve Retired From Social Networking
Monika Mundell on July 15th, 2008
Actually not entirely, but I do admit that the lure of the social networks have all but fizzled into haphazard interest at best. I was trying to come to terms why I have failed to post to Twitter, answer all my Facebook contact requests, post reply comments to my YouTube videos and join yet another group on MySpace.
To be honest, I’ve reached social networking burn out. Why can’t we go back to the old times when we had barely a handful of these sites to content with? I mean, every time I switch on my computer I find yet another one of these sites as if they multiply all by themselves.
Sometimes I wonder whether there are still enough people on the Internet to populate these upcoming sites to make them work? Naturally there must be, since they pop up like new mushrooms after spring rain. Or is this some type of modern slavery, trying to suck us into joining these sites, tumble, spin and wash us around, only to kick us out at the other end when we fail to participate on a daily basis. I mean, who in the world has got the time to be a member of all the cool networking sites? You’d have to be a full time networker to make the most and even then you’d fail miserably.
So, to ask the real question: what is the purpose of these social networks?
Lack of a social offline life
One aspect of the popularity of these sites could certainly be the lure to connect with others, like minded people who also sit in front of their computer all by themselves.
The only thing is most of these sites get populated by teenagers. Teenagers who should be offline, playing in the park, kicking around a soccer ball. Or else meet with their friends to go for a round of window shopping.
Duh….
Did I miss the transition from last century to this one?
I have this feeling I did. Somewhere along the lines between my schooling years in the good old 80s (ouch, don’t tell anybody my age) and today our social behavior has taken on a whole new turn.
Is it for the better? To be honest, I don’t think so at all. Back in the old days we were happy to hang out in town, at home, with friends, talk, meet for parties, play, go window shopping because we only had like $20/week pocket money and do all the seemingly boring things cool kids of today would snicker their nose at.
Mind you, in those days there was no Internet. At least not for the mass population. Hell, I still played with Legos when I was 14 and I’m not afraid to admit this either.
So, have social networking sites replaced the Legos of yesteryear? Or has there been (by some disturbing intervention I might ad) a worldwide call for dozens of new social networking sites to be launched every month?
I don’t know and really, I don’t care. I’ve had enough. Social networks are time wasters, unless of course I use them to network with future business associates. But come to think of it, isn’t a blog right for this too?
What do you think?
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Note from me: Monika’s view is not necessary my own
Alex
@ Alex: Thanks Alex, I’m glad you pointed this out. Otherwise you might get your head bitten off instead of mine.
Monika Mundells last blog post..Copywriting - The 10 Magic Words
It is not getting beaten up that prompted me but rather to be sure that it is clear where the message is coming from
Different people, different opinions.
Alex
From the feed reader I could not tell that Monika wrote this post. But after reading it, I thought, “Hey, that’s not the Alex I know.” So I figured that it wasn’t you writing it. Maybe there’s a way to prepend something to the article saying something like, “This is a guest post from Monika Mundell. Monika writes about at .” I problogger doing it and it works quite well.
Cheers
@ Thaya: Thank you for taking the time to stop by from the reader. I guess I’m just getting tired with all the new social networking sites that keep popping up.
The biggest trouble I have seen is that most people run to sign up and I’m left to follow to keep building a community. I find this too time consuming and wish there were ways to incorporate all these sites into one, allowing us to merge them while still communicate without login in here, there and everywhere.
Although having said this, it still is way too time consuming to spend hours every day checking my messages in all the different profiles, let alone Twitter my way around the world.
Monika Mundells last blog post..Copywriting - The 10 Magic Words
Just my feelings. there was a time when I was logging in on facebook every single day. I have completely lost interest now. There are way too many social networking sites and the contacts that one has get divided between them. It is to much to expect one to be a member of all the popular ones.
I would agree with you. I love following Twitter and have my colleagues with whom I interact on IMs and such…beyond that, my life is my family and RL.
Everything at its own time and pace.
Barbara
@ Sarika @ Barbara: Thank you for sharing your own feelings with me in regards to social networking. I admit I also loved the idea of Twitter, but found myself spending an hour a day at least following the conversations.
To be honest, I rather build my business in that time since my Twitter friends won’t pay my bills for me.
Monika Mundells last blog post..Copywriting - The 10 Magic Words
Monika,
I love social networks because I’ve learned use them effectively (a little bit of fun, but mostly business). I rarely spend countless hours on a social network to interact with the friends that are a car ride away. I mainly use it to interact to my blog’s audience so that they know that there is actually a human being on the other side. Even so, I don’t spend more time networking than required (maybe 1 hour per day).
I do shared a bit of your frustration and do agree that it does get overwhelming. Social networks has become a fad: first friendster then myspace then facebook then twitter. I feel cheated every time there is a new social network that everybody rushes to because I have to start building my reputation all over again. Hopefully new social networks that get released can have contact importers that import from other social networks. Another solution (a better solution) is to have one portable & compatible social network profile like SezWho is attempting to do with comments.
@ Thaya: I really like your social importer idea. I think this is a great hint for developers since it will no doubt be a popular solution if it ever became available.
Monika Mundells last blog post..Copywriting - The 10 Magic Words
Yeah, I think the phase has come, and it will soon slow down. I’m still always in my email like always, but not as often on MySpace, etc.. like I was just a year ago… it truly is a phase- nothing more.
Justin
Hi, I too have found Facebook has got out of hand, my account is full of people I don’t know - what happened? ISo picked the people I want to network with most ( kept it to under a dozen) and set up our own, invite only- password protected, Ning.com site. seems to be working OK so far, at least it’s manageable.
Social sites became so popular and as a result everyone tried to jump on the bandwagon and create their own version. The last I checked I was registered with 15 different sites which I would class as “social” and to be honest I rarely check one a day. If I were to spend any serious time on them I just wouldn’t have time for anything else.
Proxys last blog post..uvoy.net
Interesting - somebody asked me a similar question yesterday - which network would you choose if you could have only one. I said Twitter, partially because its simple. It works too and its basically blogging.
Most of the social networking is about teens - but who cares? If you are in the teen market go for it. If not - like most of us, the majority of it can be safely ignored. Remember forums? They were web 2.0 before web 1.0 !
Each of us needs a proper marketing plan. Blog commenting in blogs I like in in Internet Marketing is part of my plan.
As the saying goes -if you fail to plan you plan to fail.
And there’s a place for recreational networking too. But as you say Monika - it can go too far. Jack Humphries recently pointed out a YouTube video about misusing twitter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbH63Ali9U and there’s plenty of of overuse elsewhere too.
Sounds like I am coming to a conclusion of everything in moderation!
Alex
Alexs last blog post..Wireless Weather Station
Am I missing something with the whole social networking thing? Facebook was fun for a while when you get added by someone you forgot existed but usually you have no further contact than this - coupled by the fact you get a million requested to join a food fight or get eaten by a zombie?
What is that about? And how on earth can this be good for link building for SEO?
There are so many new things like Twitter taking up our time it is a wonder anyone gets anything done!
connors last blog post..U.B. Funkeys - Vroom