I agree with you wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, most "friends" take it as a snuff or personal affront if I don't accept their poker chips or sign up for a green patch for the environment. The twitterization of facebook has been an abomination; misrepresenting our relationships and how we communicate. To put it bluntly, "I liked facebook before they sold out."
As great as the iPhone (with Evernote) are, I still care a small, spiral-bound notepad with me. Though I have few opportunities to compose complete works, I find pen and paper is the best way to take down complete thoughts. Ideas are so fleeting, I simply don't have time to fix minor typographical mistakes and concern myself with saving and archiving. Perhaps the two technologies *chuckle* are supplementary: the iPhone for format data to be processed, and a logbook for unstructured thoughts and ideas.
Anyhow, I always enjoy your post and find your insights have an appropriate balance of enthusiasm and pragmatism. Keep it up!
Robin
· 5 months ago
I agree about the potential for social websites to cause distraction and noise, but are you sure you're not attributing a little too much to the services themselves rather than your usage patterns?
I didn't have a good experience on twitter until I followed a small number of smart people, almost all of whom I have met in person (at conferences etc) who post interesting insights that are relevant to my field. I check it every day or so and get a huge amount of value from it.
FriendFeed can be far more overwhelming than twitter. For a while, I would get sucked in to public discussions, some of which lasted for days, and then I'd get burned out or realize I hadn't really gained anything. I learned to control who I follow with lists, and to use the email and IM features to let me know about postings from people (mostly close to me) who I don't want to miss. I have collaborated on a paid consulting project using a private FriendFeed room (and it's worked better than any tool I've used), and I have met and conversed with interesting people outside of the 'argy-bargy' of the public debates,
It's useful for everything from discussing the latest book I've read with a few friends, to organizing a coffee meeting.
If we judged the web based on the 'average' experience of visiting random websites, you'd probably conclude that it was a complete waste of time, but we value the web because we've learned how to identify useful websites and ways to have positive interactions with them. I think the same is true with social networks.
It sounds to me as though you've identified a whole load of things you don't like about social networks that you want to avoid - which is a vital step - but I respectfully suggest that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
rcarmo
· 5 months ago
I think you missed the bit where I mentioned that I've been considering this for a while (re: Facebook albums). Searching the site for previous articles in the same vein wouldn't hurt, either.
Robin
· 5 months ago
Not really. You clearly dismiss whole services outright:
e.g. "FriendFeed is pointless, period. Also, it is not completely symmetrical and decreases fidelity of the content it aggregates, which ought to be enough reason for my not going there in months."
Sure, you might not find it useful in your particular life, but that's not what you're saying here.
If I'd read previous articles of yours on this topic (which I hadn't) it wouldn't change the meaning of these statements.
keithspragg
· 5 months ago
I know exactly what you mean - I played with twitter for about 2 weeks before I realised it wasn't going to make my day any better. 160 characters is TOO pithy. I mean - who sends 1 text these days?
All Comments
As great as the iPhone (with Evernote) are, I still care a small, spiral-bound notepad with me. Though I have few opportunities to compose complete works, I find pen and paper is the best way to take down complete thoughts. Ideas are so fleeting, I simply don't have time to fix minor typographical mistakes and concern myself with saving and archiving. Perhaps the two technologies *chuckle* are supplementary: the iPhone for format data to be processed, and a logbook for unstructured thoughts and ideas.
Anyhow, I always enjoy your post and find your insights have an appropriate balance of enthusiasm and pragmatism. Keep it up!
I didn't have a good experience on twitter until I followed a small number of smart people, almost all of whom I have met in person (at conferences etc) who post interesting insights that are relevant to my field. I check it every day or so and get a huge amount of value from it.
FriendFeed can be far more overwhelming than twitter. For a while, I would get sucked in to public discussions, some of which lasted for days, and then I'd get burned out or realize I hadn't really gained anything. I learned to control who I follow with lists, and to use the email and IM features to let me know about postings from people (mostly close to me) who I don't want to miss. I have collaborated on a paid consulting project using a private FriendFeed room (and it's worked better than any tool I've used), and I have met and conversed with interesting people outside of the 'argy-bargy' of the public debates,
It's useful for everything from discussing the latest book I've read with a few friends, to organizing a coffee meeting.
If we judged the web based on the 'average' experience of visiting random websites, you'd probably conclude that it was a complete waste of time, but we value the web because we've learned how to identify useful websites and ways to have positive interactions with them. I think the same is true with social networks.
It sounds to me as though you've identified a whole load of things you don't like about social networks that you want to avoid - which is a vital step - but I respectfully suggest that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
e.g. "FriendFeed is pointless, period. Also, it is not completely symmetrical and decreases fidelity of the content it aggregates, which ought to be enough reason for my not going there in months."
Sure, you might not find it useful in your particular life, but that's not what you're saying here.
If I'd read previous articles of yours on this topic (which I hadn't) it wouldn't change the meaning of these statements.