Is Social Networking Dying a Slow Painful Death?

[radiationroom]

Three related articles courtesy of today's Dean's List - http://home.earthlink.net/~deankay/D...#39;sList.html

ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS THE NEW DEMOCRATIC MODEL? - Can we all govern together? --- http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Are...odel-2237.html

It's SO over: cool cyberkids abandon social networking sites --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...tworking-sites

News Corporation Posts a Loss on MySpace Charge --- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/bu...ref=technology

[qharley]

It was an interesting idea, but as with all things that grow too quickly, it has a rather nasty and quick death.

Think about it - why would any one play the stoooopid games forced on you when you join, in real life? Who really cares about the people you last saw 44 years ago, and did not keep touch?
Major and UNPRODUCTIVE time waster.

Making and participating in music, with total strangers* - now that is something that feeds the soul. Doing something worthwhile.

My myspace and facebook accounts are collecting dust, and the bebo one is just irritating the crap out of me at the moment...

Going down in flames, Hindenburg style...

Cheers,
Q

* Ok, not total. But any one** of the people in the two capes I had the pleasure to be part of so far could walk right up to me without me noticing them...

** Ok, perhaps I'll recognise Immanuel

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by qharley

It was an interesting idea, but as with all things that grow too quickly, it has a rather nasty and quick death...

That's been the story of most Silicon Valley pipe dreams. The investment bankers and a few folks who buy stock clean up from selling people the Brooklyn Bridge, i.e. a business based on the exploitation of other people's uncompensated intellectual property. This is why the constant clatter about "new business models" and "copyright being unenforceable."

It's all a classic con game.

[McAllister]

I know a BUNCH of people who dig Facebook.
I do not, but then I'd rather look forward and actually do things than look backwards. I mean, I lost touch with a bunch of people for a reason, right?

I don't think Social Networks will vanish, too many people love them.

However, sooner or later people might realize that they are not talking to people, or hanging with people: they are interfacing with a computer. And they will stop.

Then again, that's what they said about television, too.

[Tim Armstrong]

I'm on Facebook and enjoy it. I LIKE my old friends, and I've made a bunch of new ones, including a bunch of musicians in bands I've long enjoyed.

I'm planning on a trip to Austin in October, and in addition to seeing some of the folks I met through THIS place (talk about a social network!), I'm gonna be meeting some folks I've long admired...

Tim

[eagan]

I'm sure that the whole silly phenomenon of being some kind of "this year's fad and fashion" will fade.

Beyond that, once past the whole "oh, dood, that is so, like, 2008!" bullshit, maybe people will just simply see it as what it is and nothing more. It does have a place, there is some worth to it, but like anything that has some popular fad aspect to it, there has been a lot of bullshit flying around making that stuff out to be more than it is.

I have a MySpace page I rarely bother with, I now have a Facebook page, which does seem moderately worthwhile in some ways. Don't much care about Twitter, and definitely saw some "jumped the shark" factor when it was somehow some kind of NEWS EVENT that some Hollywood boy toy and lame actor had some kind of popularity contest about who had the most "followers" on Tweety. Oy.

I do see Facebook as a slightly interesting and somewhat useful medium for people to stay loosely in touch. Now if only I could convince some people to step away from dinking around with every stupid Facebook "application" they encounter.



JLE

[TubaSolo]

No more teens on FB & MS?

Good!!

Who wants to be around 'em anyway?

[radiationroom]

Originally Posted by TubaSolo

No more teens on FB & MS?

Good!!

Who wants to be around 'em anyway?

I DO!!!

My "Mix Attack Radio Network" http://www.radiationroom.com/mixattack/ is geared towards the teenage and 18-25 market.

[Dave Perry]

As a fad they will fade, but to whatever extent they offer people features they want, they will still get used, like any other computer app or website.

[TubaSolo]

Originally Posted by radiationroom

I DO!!!

My "Mix Attack Radio Network" http://www.radiationroom.com/mixattack/ is geared towards the teenage and 18-25 market.

Oh, you mean figuratively, thru your music and such, I hear you.

But otherwise... (ok, I personally do know several sensitive, creative, fairly balanced & worthy exceptions)

About social networks: journalists are generally desperate for trends, trying hard to detect new ones and sometimes making them up out of thin air.

I really don't think Myspace or Facebook are going away any time soon, at least as communication and promotion channels for musicians.

We spent waaay too much time creating those pages for godssake!!

[nobby]

Originally Posted by TubaSolo

I really don't think Myspace or Facebook are going away any time soon, at least as communication and promotion channels for musicians.

We spent waaay too much time creating those pages for godssake!!

One of the downsides is that people find themselves spending an awful lot of time on social networking sites and time is finite.

BTW, maybe (most likely) it's a problem on my end, but I can't navagate to JG's facebook page from mine now that she has an 'artist's' page. If there's a way to do that, it currently eludes me

I can be her fan but she can't be my friend

So tell her I said "hi"

Another thing is some people are burning out from unwanted exposure on facebook. Here's a related article:

Party On, But No Tweets

Few are abandoning social-networking sites. Facebook users upload one billion new photos a month, a spokeswoman said, and Twitter attracted 44.5 million unique visitors in June, according to Techcrunch.com.

But there is an electronic evolution of manners, with still-developing rules about when using social media is appropriate and when it isn’t. In the early days, posting photos of adults in funny hats seemed harmless — everyone could be an Internet star. Now, six years after the start of Friendster, one of the first social networks, friends can feel like the new paparazzi.

Celia Chen, founder of Notes on a Party, an online magazine about entertaining, said hosts are often now asking guests to refrain from posting photos and sharing details of parties.

[J.G.]

BTW, maybe (most likely) it's a problem on my end, but I can't navagate to JG's facebook page from mine now that she has an 'artist's' page. If there's a way to do that, it currently eludes me

I can be her fan but she can't be my friend

So tell her I said "hi"

Hi, Nobby!

That's because my facebook page, (not my artist facebook page), is what I use primarily for family stuff and is set to private.

As explained in that thread I made about it all in MM's forum, (Digitally Dazed...), the problem came after I had set up another regular page, which I was going to use as a musician page, until I realized how to set one o' those up from my original page--so then I deleted the second as it was becoming problematic due to both having the same name. Unfortunately, by that point, I had already connected with a number of pals, you being one of 'em...

And DAYAM, for facebook being so incredibly popular, it is incredibly hard to navigate; with the limited visual tweakability almost as underwhelming the poor set up.

J.

[nobby]

Originally Posted by J.G.

Hi, Nobby!

That's because my facebook page, (not my artist facebook page), is what I use primarily for family stuff and is set to private.

What I'm saying is that your artist facebook page may as well be set to private as far as navagating to it from my regular facebook page goes.

[eagan]

Actually, J, I myself have a personal Facebook page, my name, and a "fan page" (for my DOZENS of fans worldwide.....no autographs, please) for myself, which is, since I'm a solo guy, under my name.

Different pages each with their own URL. I don't know of anybody who has been confused by this yet.


JLE

[nobby]

Originally Posted by eagan

Actually, J, I myself have a personal Facebook page, my name, and a "fan page" (for my DOZENS of fans worldwide.....no autographs, please) for myself, which is, since I'm a solo guy, under my name.

Braggart.

Different pages each with their own URL. I don't know of anybody who has been confused by this yet.

It's hard for me to be confused by something that, as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to exist.

I can click on your link below your post, which gets me to your personal facebook page, but I don't see a link to your artist page. Which, giving you the benefit of the doubt, actually exists.

Then again, I have an Achilles Albatross ReverbNation (through facebook) account, and a facebook Achilles albatross account, neither of which I can navigate to from my personal facebook site, and to add inslut (sic) to injury, apparently I can't allow myself to be my friend

Talk about snobbery

[Tim Armstrong]

Type "Juanita Grande" in your FB search box (upper right hand side), and you'll be able to go to her artist page...

Tim

[Pancho Ballard]

As was hinted at in this thread by Tim, we're all taking part in social networking by participating in this forum.

So, is The Womb dying a slow, painful death?

[Tim Halligan]

Originally Posted by Pancho Ballard

As was hinted at in this thread by Tim, we're all taking part in social networking by participating in this forum.

Dead right.

I've just spent 5 weeks flying around the world meeting friends made here and other places on the internot.

It was a wild ride which I'd do again in a heartbeat if there wasn't the whole "you have to earn a living at your job to pay for it" thing involved...

I've just signed up for Facebook too...but that's more to do with a nice young lady I met during my travels than for actually wanting to revisit my past. God what a fucking debacle of a user interface that is...


Cheers,
Tim

[nobby]

Originally Posted by Pancho Ballard

As was hinted at in this thread by Tim, we're all taking part in social networking by participating in this forum.

So, is The Womb dying a slow, painful death?

The articles were referring to the big social networking sites, facebook and myspace. And kids, mostly.

Originally Posted by TubaSolo

About social networks: journalists are generally desperate for

trends, trying hard to detect new ones and sometimes making them

up out of thin air.

That's a salient point. I think the cyber-democracy article is a
good example. Blogs and tweets may influence a democracy, but can't replace one.

I really don't think Myspace or Facebook are going away any time soon, at least as communication and promotion channels for musicians.

Me neither, unless they go bankrupt. Both myspace and facebook are losing money hand over fist.

And if they attempt to stop the hemorrhaging either by charging a subscription fee, or by stacking their sites with tons of ads, they'll lose a lot of their "unique visitors" who will move to the "Next Big Thing" in social networking in the blink of an eye.

Bit of a 'Catch-22'.

[Pancho Ballard]

Originally Posted by nobby

The articles were referring to the big social networking sites, facebook and myspace. And kids, mostly.

I understand that but I think use of forums such as this shows that social networking isn't dying, it's just changing. The Facebook and Myspace model isn't necessarily working (never has for me) but the more focused form of forum networking, which is more information and opinion-based (rather than a look-at-me way of networking), seems to be going strong.

Social networking is nothing new though - it's as old as man - so there's no chance of it disappearing, just evolving.

Oh by the way - @panchoballard - Twitter