A Publish2 network
Gonna have to face it, you're addicted to (social network) love
I think I have a problem. A serious problem. One that's strangely at odds with a lot of my peers (I think). While pundits and Poynter prod journalists to embrace a social networks, you know, maybe just one or two as a bare minimum, I can't stop joining them.
I was on the beta list for Pownce. I'm an elite member of Yelp. I was on Facebook well before it went outside the college realm and I'm an early adopter of Livejournal (a member since 2000). I book artist interviews through MySpace and use LinkedIn to look for sources. All my photos go up on flickr the day I take them, and my entire library is on LibraryThing. And now I'm on Wired Journalists!
This is the wave of the future, right?
The inevitable problem is that I can't keep up with all these networks or remember what my uids and passwords are. I had to really restrain myself to not join tumblr and jaiku. My twitter account is woefully neglected--tweet-less for months.
It's just all too easy to sign up for these new networks and play around with the new functions. Perhaps it's a byproduct of being part of the ADD Generation--every new social network is a new shiny? They're useful in their own ways, but joining them to this extent is overkill as so many of them overlap. So maybe until we hit the distant goal of web 3.0, whenever that will be, I'm going to plug my ears (and perhaps unplug my computer).
Anyone else out there have a social networking addiction?
ps: I hope someone out there got the extremely obvious Robert Palmer reference in this post's subject line!
I was on the beta list for Pownce. I'm an elite member of Yelp. I was on Facebook well before it went outside the college realm and I'm an early adopter of Livejournal (a member since 2000). I book artist interviews through MySpace and use LinkedIn to look for sources. All my photos go up on flickr the day I take them, and my entire library is on LibraryThing. And now I'm on Wired Journalists!
This is the wave of the future, right?
The inevitable problem is that I can't keep up with all these networks or remember what my uids and passwords are. I had to really restrain myself to not join tumblr and jaiku. My twitter account is woefully neglected--tweet-less for months.
It's just all too easy to sign up for these new networks and play around with the new functions. Perhaps it's a byproduct of being part of the ADD Generation--every new social network is a new shiny? They're useful in their own ways, but joining them to this extent is overkill as so many of them overlap. So maybe until we hit the distant goal of web 3.0, whenever that will be, I'm going to plug my ears (and perhaps unplug my computer).
Anyone else out there have a social networking addiction?
ps: I hope someone out there got the extremely obvious Robert Palmer reference in this post's subject line!
Add a Comment
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Comment by Martha Spizziri on January 29, 2008 at 1:03pm - PS I just joined the "Watch Colbert" group on Facebook -- a brilliant app for them to have added because it just makes the site stickier -- makes FB the place I'll go to do something I would probably do anyway.
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Comment by Martha Spizziri on January 29, 2008 at 11:57am
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Although I'm a late adopter, I am starting to show signs of an addiction. I think it's just a matter of joining a ton of them and then figuring out which I really like. I'm on LibraryThing, GoodReads, AND Books iRead. iRead has the most Facebook users, LibraryThing is integrated with another social site I'm on, and GoodReads is on Facebook AND I was already a member of it before I was on FB. I'm loathe to give any of them up. I wish GoodReads and LibraryThing would combine.
Definitely integration with existing sites I use is a big plus. Twitter on its own would probably be marginal for me, because not a lot of my friends are on it, but since I can also use it to update my Facebook status, it serves two purposes.
I'm pretty much sticking with the bigger and/or more popular sites for reasons stated by others above. They're the ones where most of my friends and colleagues are.
I've had a Friendster account for years and I think I've looked at it maybe once.
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Comment by Zac Echola on January 23, 2008 at 5:49pm
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Hi I'm Zac and I have early adopter syndrome.
I had Gmail within a week of its launch. I was on Facebook the second it was available for my school. Hulu? Had my account on day 1. I'll try anything.
That said, I'm in so many betas for things I don't even care about any more or never cared about in the first place. I leave a lot of crappy software in my wake.
But then, it's my job to stay on top of this stuff so that others around me don't have to. I'm their filter.
It also really depends heavily on who else uses the networks. If you're the only one there, it's worthless.
I joined twitter during SXSW last year and thought it was pretty rad, but worthless noise. Within 6 months I was back because it had real value for me.
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Comment by Maria Varmazis on January 23, 2008 at 4:51pm - Hello fellow network junkie :) On LJ, do you use communities to find sources or do you search by interest tag? What's the reception been from users? I've come across a few local area reporters asking questions in communities I'm in (for the Boston area specifically) and the reception was a bit... hostile. Has that been your experience as well?
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Comment by Melissa Umbarger on January 23, 2008 at 4:49pm - Yeah, I'm a social network junkie, too. Myspace, LJ, Facebook, Shelfari (books) -- you name it, I'm probably on it. I've simplified life by using the same username and a variation on a password for each site. I've found I get the most results out of the sites I put the most into -- so while I've been neglecting Myspace lately, it's been pretty dormant. On LJ, on the other hand, where I've been spending more time, I've found a lot of useful communities and "friends" and sources of information.
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Comment by Maria Varmazis on January 23, 2008 at 3:26pm
- I have the same problem on certain networks, Jared. Funny you mention Pownce, it's my least reactive community as well. For all the time I invest in cultivating these networks--which can be so hit-or-miss--I'm not getting the results I'd like to see either, with the exception of Myspace. But as long as I have the time I'm going keep them as another tool in my toolbelt for cultivating sources (call me an eternal optimist).
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Comment by Jared Silfies on January 23, 2008 at 3:15pm -
My biggest problem with social networking isn't just in the ease of joining and minor functional differences making them appealing (Twitter v. Pownce?), but the fact that I have a problem with the networking part.
I post Tweets or Pownce messages and files with little or no response from the community. I look for people I know and find myself stuck with a few professionals or outgoing people on these things.
So not only do I have a problem remembering ids, passwords and purposes, I can't even get enough use out of these networks for it to be worth doing.
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