Leave it to Dr. Helen to put it so beautifully:
I think I check my facebook account maybe a few times a month. Maybe. I think the last time I checked it was when I needed to add a coworker to my list so that we could keep a steady business contact going since he was rotating off of our project and going to work for a different group. The majority of these services just strike me as utterly inane, especially Twitter and any service similar to it. Penny Arcade did a wonderful job dumping all over Twitter in a comic published about two months ago.
Unlike the author of the article that Dr. Helen was talking about, I realized a while ago that paying attention to most blogs and social media in general was a waste of time. I used to have probably a good 50 RSS feeds in Google Reader, and I've narrowed that down to probably about half of that now. The reason for that is that I realized that I was wasting an enormous amount of time consuming meaningless rubbish. As a general rule, if I comment on your blog, it's because I have your feed in my Google Reader list. Life is too short to waste on blogs and social media that mainly revolve around meaningless personal minutia.
In honor of Penny Arcade, I suggest we start calling such bloggers "Twitter Shitters."
Katherine Berry at Pajamas Media discusses social networking: "Having just spent another morning of my life reading the most boring details of other people's mornings, I've realized how very little things like Twitter, FaceBook, or FriendFeed actually contribute to one's life: it's more like sitting in a room full of over-caffeinated narcissistic Tourette's patients with ADHD who are all trying to be the most entertaining. And, really, what's so social about a monologue?"
I think I check my facebook account maybe a few times a month. Maybe. I think the last time I checked it was when I needed to add a coworker to my list so that we could keep a steady business contact going since he was rotating off of our project and going to work for a different group. The majority of these services just strike me as utterly inane, especially Twitter and any service similar to it. Penny Arcade did a wonderful job dumping all over Twitter in a comic published about two months ago.
Unlike the author of the article that Dr. Helen was talking about, I realized a while ago that paying attention to most blogs and social media in general was a waste of time. I used to have probably a good 50 RSS feeds in Google Reader, and I've narrowed that down to probably about half of that now. The reason for that is that I realized that I was wasting an enormous amount of time consuming meaningless rubbish. As a general rule, if I comment on your blog, it's because I have your feed in my Google Reader list. Life is too short to waste on blogs and social media that mainly revolve around meaningless personal minutia.
In honor of Penny Arcade, I suggest we start calling such bloggers "Twitter Shitters."
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I think you miss the point altogether on this. Social media is going to be the next marketing frontier, those who don't participate will be left in the way side. it may seem like meaningless monologue, but if you read deeper into it, it is no different than sales, you have to listen more than you talk. If not, you will talk your way out of potential sales or partnerships. People love the fact that you actually heard what they said! Not much worse than telling someone you want to do business with them, but don't know what is going on with them.
I'll believe that when I see it. So far, social networking has not turned out to be good for much in the way of business. Other than as a means to drop in a few more ads here and there, I doubt much will come of it.
I'm getting to the point where I'm beginning to agree. I went and set up a couple of social networking sites like Facebook. I've had nothing truly interesting come out of it. The last time I looked at Facebook was about 2 mths ago, and still nothing of interest. As for Twitter, well, I simply don't see anything but inanity there.
My wife tried to convince me to set up a Facebook account but I'm just not interested. Heck, even Blogger isn't all that interesting. I have maybe 6 or 7 sites I visit regularly, and that's it. I even recognize in myself a lack of interesting things to say, which is why I so rarely blog these days.
Maybe I'm just depressed!