A friend recently summed up the Facebook-era of online activity succinctly, stating “it feels as exciting or thought provocative as watching an episode of Ellen.” Adding the phrase, “it feels like your Mom’s internet.”
In many ways we agree. The whole online experience today feels like a time-wasting trip to the suburban mall. Maybe it’s all the senseless chatter, commercial signage and snapshot voguing that echos the food court environment. Or maybe it’s all the young girls.
That’s the one, great step forward in the social media era. It brought women, younger and older, into the once exclusively male and geek dominated domain of “cyberspace.” …
Whereas all this social media stuff is purported to be keeping everyone connected, in reality it’s all just pretending your famous. Facebook / Twitter / et al are only about emulating celebrity culture, with followers tracking your every minute move like stalker fans. It is just ego stroking, borrowing from the culture of tabloid soundbites and newsmagazine fandom. As if everyone in corporate marketing is a rockstar wannabe. There is no real communication going on here. Just people who are sold on the US Magazine / Access Hollywood view of America, and now simulate it being by both groupie and B-list famewhore.
Whereas this publicity environment of constant press-releases used to be the domain of the media, today the situation is brands trying to figure about how to excite all these miniature self-promoters to buzz about their latest product.
from here
Don't ask me how I found this article. I was googling something about simplicity, but the part about twitter and facebook just being a way to pretend you are famous hit me smack in the face. I left facebook 2 months ago and so far haven't looked back. I reactivated an old twitter account to sign up for a Kindle drawing but I have found that I glean little tidbits from it just like my favorite blogs. I don't follow anyone I know. But it will stay a "check it when I'm bored" activity. Who really is saying things on Facebook and Twitter I need to hear? Not my kids, not my parents, not my husband. Not anyone who actually participates in my life. I get blogposts from my favorite blogs emailed to me daily so I can read at my leisure. I know what's going on at my church because I actually go there and hear the announcements. The most important people in my life just yell from the next room or call me. Likewise, me them...
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