Social networking - good or bad?

[BREWSTERS]

As a punishment for poor attitude at school, we've confiscated our 14 yo daughters phone and laptop for a week - the difference in her is dramatic - she can speak for one thing, something I'd forgotten she could do (mainly just grunts previously), and she now acknowledges the presence of her brothers.

Seriously though, fewer mood swings and less backchat and we only have to tell her to do something 2 or 3 times instead of the usual 5 or 6!

Social networking sites have had a detrimental effect on the world IMO. They provide little that is new, just a new way of doing what people did before, and an open platform for a lot of negativity.

Am I showing my age here? Am I missing some great benefits?

 

[disruptive]

Yes, I agree, I think SN means many escape online instead of real-world conversations. It makes it far too easy to avoid being in the present....personally the same could be said of the internet. I reckon it must be so disruptive for kids to concentrate today with all the distractions....in my day it was TV or Radio and that was bad enough.

 

[chrisduggan]

On a professional level the "networking" can be very useful, updating, advertising and promoting etc. I use FB to keep up with mates back home. My wife is on Twatter 24/7. On a personal level i have seen it destroy relationships, lose jobs and wreck lives.

Our son is 4, heaven knows what the world will be like in 10 years..

 

[denchomsky]

I was wondering just this morning how many hours are wasted on facebook in the world per day, if you added it all up.

I reckon about 99.9% of stuff posted on facebook is purile, vacuous drivvle.

Its good for sharing photos, but other than that its all about insecure people looking for approval of their boring lives, show off's looking to show off some more and businesses trying to get you to become their friend.

 

[Blossom]

It's not been great for websites either to be honest. What would once have been a lot of decent backlinks have just turned into just tweets and shares, people mindlessly reposting links without even looking at the pages, the spam etc etc. I did write an article about how social media is killing websites, but I haven't published it yet.

 

[chrisduggan]

Social Networking Accounts for 1 of Every 6 Minutes Spent Online

• FB is used by 1 in every 13 people on earth

• Over 700 Billion minutes a month are spent on FB

• 20 million applications are installed per day on FB

• Every 20 minutes on FB over 1 million links are shared, 2 million friend requests are accepted and almost 3 million messages are sent

Statistics are endless.

 

[Ashton]

I'm 20, part of one of the first generations to use social networking, from myspace to bebo to the goliath that is facebook.

Social networking in my mind equates to facebook in the same way search does to google, if not more so.

Its all about moderation, people become obsessed with it, they update their status / message their friends constantly, and its all so mundane to me. I don't care about what they had for dinner, nor do I care about the latest celebrities haircut.

However... if used in moderated way, its a great tool for keeping in touch, casual conversation and making/keeping friends (Banning its use permanently could be detrimental to friendships as it has become so important to kids for socialising)

Its very easy to say a negative comment that you cant take back - its in peoples inboxes, they have read it, etc. Its easy for people to be rude on - whilst its not quite faceless, it almost is.

However, recently I saw something worse http://www.littlegossip.com/

This was being used by 14 year olds in my old school to anonymously bitch about each other and was being shared through facebook - they would be saying so and so was pregnant, someone had sex with a teacher etc. Totally vile.

One of my developer friends is part of something which I really really like and would love to see become more known: http://www.path.com/

 

[BREWSTERS]

I was wondering just this morning how many hours are wasted on facebook in the world per day, if you added it all up.

I reckon about 99.9% of stuff posted on facebook is purile, vacuous drivvle.

Its good for sharing photos, but other than that its all about insecure people looking for approval of their boring lives, show off's looking to show off some more and businesses trying to get you to become their friend.

If you consider that you live for 80 years give or take, that's only 700,800 hours - maybe 500,000 waking hours. Do you really want to spend a big chunk of that finding out if some prat can't decide to have Chinese or a pizza tonight?

 

[BREWSTERS]

One of my developer friends is part of something which I really really like and would love to see become more known: http://www.path.com/

Looks good.

There's nothing (except ease) stopping people buying a domain and setting up their own sites for family and friends only.

 

[Ashton]

I particularly like this from their site:

Why can I only share with 50 people?

We are inspired by Professor Robin Dunbar at Oxford University, who’s research dives deeply into the number of trusted relationships humans can maintain throughout life. We tend to have 5 best friends, 15 good friends, 50 close friends and family, and 150 friends. Currently, we have chosen to focus on 50 but we may expand to 150 in the future.

Sure beats facebook popularity contest with people having 700+ friends etc!

 

[Blossom]

One of my developer friends is part of something which I really really like and would love to see become more known: http://www.path.com/

I've seen that before but I don't really get the market for it. My personal reaction is 'yet another social networking website'. If you were that bothered, why wouldn't you just use FB lists to filter content you send/see, or just restrict your account to 50 odd people?

 

[cc976a]

From a business point of view they are useful - but agree with Brewsters and others I may be at that age where socially just not getting the fascination.

I set up a Twitter account for a couple of sites which went well but when updating the content the amount of useless drivel was incredible - does anyone actually read it??

I've seen groups of teenagers in cars and on buses all on phones texting and tweeting away - never could understand why they are hanging round with the group of friends they where with rather than the 'more interesting' ones they were testing / reordering / facebooking (is that a word ...?)

Does appear to take the social side out - or is it doing the opposite and helping people feel confident expressing opinions, forming relationships etc... (from a going from teenage to adult perspective)

The number of people I have come and work for me that are certainly a lot more confident and more assertive now than the days before all this was about......time will tell I guess

 

[Ashton]

I've seen that before but I don't really get the market for it. My personal reaction is 'yet another social networking website'. If you were that bothered, why wouldn't you just use FB lists to filter content you send/see, or just restrict your account to 50 odd people?

You could do that but I would prefer to keep facebook as a separate entity to keep in touch with those that are more distant - a whole different website to separate my person identity from my public identity.

 

[BREWSTERS]

Does appear to take the social side out - or is it doing the opposite and helping people feel confident expressing opinions, forming relationships etc... (from a going from teenage to adult perspective)

In my view the opposite is true. My daughter flat out refused to sit next to someone she didn't know at one of my sons school plays. Her 'actual' social skills are poor, whereas my sons who are younger and do not yet use these sites, are fantastically outgoing and confident.

The number of people I have come and work for me that are certainly a lot more confident and more assertive now than the days before all this was about......time will tell I guess

Their change in confidence is more likely to be down to them working /responsibility/getting older etc.

 

[Blossom]

You could do that but I would prefer to keep facebook as a separate entity to keep in touch with those that are more distant - a whole different website to separate my person identity from my public identity.

Use Facebook lists The only differences would be that your profile pic and info would have to be the same.

 

[expertc]

Social networking? My opinion:

Professional networks: LinkedIN and similar - were OK at the beginning, now reminds me of the spam I daily receive in my mailbox. Cross between a recruitment website and cheap advertising. So the idea was killed almost completely. Still, I have found few good contacts but immediately our conversation moved to normal email.

FaceBook type: Very, very bad. It simply kills social skills and creativity in the younger generation. They sit in front of the screen and simply become addictive. The most unpleasant thing - nothing could be done about it. FaceBook reminds me of drug dealer, they need more and more recruits every day do get them hooked. Their profits getting higher and higher not because of the added value but because of the addiction. Nothing can be done about it, it is here to stay. Full stop. Sad. Fast food replaces proper meal - FaceBook replaces real friendship.

Closed and invitation only networks. Only useful thing so far. But due to very little profit they are closing down all the time.

 

[wb]

I find Facebook pretty boring now, and have regularly been 'culling' people off who have no need to be connected. Haven't got rid of it though as I still use business fan pages and keep in touch with people who I don't see as often in person.

Denchomsky sums it up well below...

Its good for sharing photos, but other than that its all about insecure people looking for approval of their boring lives, show off's looking to show off some more and businesses trying to get you to become their friend.

 

[theaffiliate]

Cant see the point in that path website, it wants to connect to facebook.com where all the personal information is stored anyway.

I'm 20

20 and you have properties already?

Good work.......

(Edit.... it was this post I came across only earlier today)

 

[Ashton]

Cant see the point in that path website, it wants to connect to facebook.com where all the personal information is stored anyway.



20 and you have properties already?

Good work.......

(Edit.... it was this post I came across only earlier today)

Thank you, just a couple of 2 up 2 downs in Portsmouth but its a start.

 

[binny]

Complete and utter waste of time with so many negatives imo, in 20 years time I think people will be looking back and cursing us for allowing it grow into a monster