Interesting food for thought. donohoe: The Washington Post Social Reader app unnerves me. The act of
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Interesting food for thought. donohoe: The Washington Post Social Reader app unnerves me. The act of
Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth on how 9/11 would have been “more horrific” if social media existed at that time. (via Poynter)
Most of us learned about the events of that day in one of four ways — by television, by radio, by newspaper, or by a phone call from a friend. And while we are all incredibly grateful for the ways in which technology has enhanced our lives, I think we are also grateful that we didn’t live through 9/11 with all of that technology.
We didn’t have to see live video footage shot from inside the collapsing buildings and uploaded onto YouTube. Cellphones didn’t have cameras back then. … Can you imagine how horrifying it would have been if we had tweets from the victims on the planes or in the offices, or if they had posted to their Facebook pages?
… Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all the technologies that have yet to be invented make all these events more real, and more horrific. Television pales in comparison.
So about that Google+ thing…
Is Google+ the higher education of social networking?
That’s the thought that came to me tonight as I logged on to my Google+ account. I stared at my newsfeed stream for a few minutes when I noticed something.
Barring a few exceptions, a lot of the people I follow circle(?) are posting to Google+ ways the site can be used, what it’s good for, what makes it great.
That got me thinking about the beginning of Facebook, and even Twitter, when that kind of theorizing wasn’t done on the individual social networks’ platforms.
No one ever posted a status update on Facebook about how Facebook could be used, they posted passive agressive status updates.
It made me wonder: If Facebook was the high school of social networks, is Google+ the university of them?
But then if one were to factor in Twitter, I guess that would make Facebook the, gulp, junior high of social media.
It makes sense when you think about it. Especially for those of us who were in school at the time of Facebook’s rollout and got to experience a blissful (and parent-free) Facebook experience. Status updates were more personal. More direct. More aimed at your “friends.”
They could be used as a way of hoping the guy you were crushing on noticed you. Or to let the girl you went out with know you had a good time the night before. It was an indirect way to let your best friend know why you were mad. Pretty junior highish.
Then Twitter came along: “What are you doing?” it asked us. Like a high schooler’s social calendar, we filled in the details. We were shopping. We were on holidays. We were working. FourSquare was a nice addition to Twitter High, allowing us to let our friends know exactly where we were at all times.
Now we’ve moved on to Google+ (we’ll forget Buzz ever existed), and instead of playing with the network or trying to make it work, there’s so much theory. Almost a month in and I’ve already read about how journalists are using Google+. It took journalists (myself included), years to get on Twitter and now suddenly we’re embracing a social media RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE? Puzzling.
Perhaps it’s time we remembered what social networks are for: To be social.
From Neil Strauss’ article “The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture” in The Wall Street Journal. And yes, I’m aware how ironic it is that I am sharing that article with you, but he makes some good points. So go read it, just don’t like it.
If you happen to be reading this article online, you’ll notice that right above it, there is a button labeled “like.” Please stop reading and click on “like” right now.
Thank you. I feel much better. It’s good to be liked.
Don’t forget to comment on, tweet, blog about and StumbleUpon this article. And be sure to “+1” it if you’re on the newly launched Google+ social network. In fact, if you don’t want to read the rest of this article, at least stay on the page for a few minutes before clicking elsewhere. That way, it will appear to the site analytics as if you’ve read the whole thing.
