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I'll second that. Most of my friends just use social media to play around posting pictures of nights out and updating their status to be a witty as possible and try to look funny, fun but it doesn't mean much or carry much value.
I don't think most people have used social media to its full potential yet and when they do they will use it as more of a learning/debate tool to help develop their opinions on things.
I feel way too connected when I keep hearing people are "cooking dinner" or "watching a DVD". I don't want to connect for that. Who does? Just wrote this blog post http://tinyurl.com/8pdxdl it has a few feelings about this sort of thing.
This is a service that is supposed to help you aggregate much of your lifestream, but think of the data that is there. As Scoble said, that is why Facebook has done so well at monetizing their model. But as Winer observed, it is a little scary to have all of your information in a "closed system" (owned by one company).
It depends on whether these services can be ruled democratically or not, but we already have a major player like Google - so we will have to watch and see and hope that that company doesn't act like our SC Department of Motor Vehicles and just start selling our information to private marketing companies to make up for budget shortfalls.
With that said, all I hope for is that information is used and not abused. This seems to be the tendency of the human race throughout history. I hope I am just being a bit "Orwellian" - and I sincerely hope the future history makes a liar out of me. It would be good to be wrong about that!
I don't see it as an experiment, any more than going to PTA. the Jaycees and the nightclubs. Internet social media simply "is". It is a facet of our lives; another avenue to explore, another way to grow into who we are.
It is just another thread in our fabric.
So, no, I don't see it as a sophomoric period before moving the human race to a greater maturity anymore so than electricity or automation.
Orwellian fears are realized from the invention of the electronic database, not the internet. RFID tags will enable phenomenal drilling down into ever aspect of our lives. But the good that comes from that will offset the evil.
As Web 2.0 revs up with a roar we have much to look forward to. In a few short years every scientist in the world will be able to collaborate across the planet, simultaneously, in real time to address disease, climate change, energy, and every major ill that endangers our future. Solution that now take decades may soon take mere months. It is really quite awesome and immensely satisfying to be a part of.
Ultimately, for me, I like the connected nature of the new social web. It is a lot of fun, quite immature (ie. very young and uncertain where the future lies) and takes relatively little to opt out of once we become uncomfortable.
I'm with you...I enjoy sharing portions of my life with others. In fact, having moved overseas roughly 20 years ago, the advent of the internet made me in to what I am today. I had a necessity to share experiences, images and videos with my family back in the states, still do, so this is a part of my life. If I don't share, my family has no clue what I'm up to.
So I guess you could say that not only do I enjoy sharing my life, but it is a necessary evil based on circumstances. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Unplugging from the feeds from time to time ("after work" is such a foreign concept to me - but then again, I did just start a new company a month ago) is certainly a good idea. Don't do it nearly enough, even when not busy starting up a startup.
It'll be interesting to see what 2009 holds for all of us. Better ways to engage with others, better ways to understand the flow, and heck yeah! I'll vote for making us all smarter. I aim to be smarter tomorrow than today every day I'm still breathing!
Be seeing you!
Dan
By the way, if anyone hasn't given Dan a proper visit, you should stop by his blog http://biztechtalk.com or visit his new company http://www.informationarchitected.com/.
As always, Dan, thanks for jolting my brain into just a little more thought.
Well, that's it for me tonight gang. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. I'll catch all of you on the flip side, and thank you very much for a great conversation. I have learned a lot from each of you.
Yes, I'm more connected to them than ever before. Yes, I'm interacting with my friends regularly and intelligently; but is that connectedness worth the time? And would we really be better off if we had just one mega-meta-social network to join?
As dpwilliams comments below, many use Twitter for entertainment while some of us use it to increase our wisdom and knowledge and connect with others capable of great insights and collaboration.
While many will persist in trying to turn complex subjects into black and white decisions that is simply NEVER going to work. The problem is not that information is aggregated just as the problem with marketing is not marketing itself. It is marketing used badly.
If only the general public could grasp the difference between good marketing and bad. Why do we collectively tolerate being force-fed advertising by multi-national corporations yet complain about almost every method small business owners use to try to reach us? Can we not tell the difference - or are we simply unwilling to invest the effort to tell the difference - between get-rich-quick con-artists and legitimate businesses?
The concern with the Internet and Social Media is not WHAT is aggregated; it is for what unethical purposes all that information may be used. Marketing is the least of our concerns.