I never felt old until the social networking craze. Let me rephrase that. I didn't feel old until I set up a Facebook account, played with it for a few days and then realized that I didn't get it.
Maybe it's because I'm not single, maybe it's because I'm not 14 and maybe it's because I'm not in the market for any new friends, but I just didn't understand the big deal. Was it cool to find people I went to camp and high school and college with? Absolutely. No doubt about that, but the reason I'm not friends with most of those people from high school or college is that we didn't have enough in common to stay in touch over the years.
One guy from college sent me a friend request a few days after my account was set up. He threw in a "what's up, buddy?" to make it a little more personal. I agreed to the friend request, of course, but I realized I had NOTHING to say back to this guy. Nothing. I couldn't even fake a "hey, how's it going?" because I know that answering that request is probably the last interaction I will have with the guy. He's a nice guy, but trust me, neither of us are under the illusion that even if we were neighbors, we would be anything more than casual acquaintances.
So to make this long post short (too late), I guess I'm now officially old. I appreciate Facebook and MySpace as places for teens and college kids to have an added mode of communication with their friends. What I don't get is why I should be friends with people I have nothing to say to.
It seems that even marketers are having trouble figuring out the online world of social networking.
Can You See the Wrinkles on my Facebook?
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3 comments:
Yay comments! Ok, I completely understand you feeling old. We are getting there which is depressing. But I've found Facebook really fun in the sense that I've been able to reconnect with people who I did have a lot in common with but for reasons like distance or time, we lost touch. Take us for example. We're cool but it took Facebook for us to get back in touch after about 9 years.
This is a far too optimistic comment for this blog. This is a grouchy old man place. Seriously, Facebook is cool but it's not God's gift. The real question is how it affects those who grew up with it, which is is different than how it will affect us old farts.
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