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| Facebook post from the Utah gunman. |
The layout, format, etc. were well suited toward music, bands and publishing information about such. Soon after people started using the site for promoting themselves - no band needed - though there were issues with the publishing of songs people didn't own.
Around that time or soon after News Corp. paid about $500 million dollars for myspace.com.
Today there are many social networking sites of all sorts: Facebook chief among them. Myspace has fallen on hard times and was recently purchased for $35 million by Specific Media for most stock. Justin Timerlake is a partner in that deal and will soon have an office working "around the clock" to develop ideas for the new "myspace".
Zynga - the maker of Farmville on Facebook, is slated to go public - posting revenues of $1.8 billion USD in 2010 and profits of $630 million USD. Not bad considering its really just a game.
Google just has release Google+ to invitees only. Google+, a mybook/facespace me-too site, has the concept of circles - family circles, friend circles, and who knows what else, crop circles perhaps.
I really have to wonder about all of this - why do people need all of these tools to maintain relationships?
As the match.com ad says, today 1 out of 5 relationships begin online - though I suspect this is misleading because it no doubt includes texting and email as well as visits to sites like match.com.
Ironically none of this stuff, Facebook, myspace, Google+, has your relationships or their well being in mind. Like Farmville and Zynga they are businesses and only after money - not your money specifically - but the money others can make off of your use of the site. Zynga's nearly two billion in revenue from Farmville tells you all you need to know about what businesses see in Facebook.
Fortunately most part people are at least somewhat circumspect about what they post there - though some reveal their true personalities: whiners, promoters, sweethearts, hound dogs, and all the rest.
(Though I have to say some take Facebook posting to the extreme, like the Utah gunman who posted to Facebook while holding hostages and exchanging gunfire with police.)
Personally whiners are my favorites posters: "I need someone to come and fix my car for free right now!" Apparently these people are the center of the universe at large. Continually posting demands for free and immediate help and service. The commentary after these posts is the most telling - often simple silence.
In any case why do we need this stuff?
Do I really want to know what you ate for dinner? Where you went last night, what you did?
No, I don't.
I think it has to do with people wanting to be famous, at least for a few milliseconds. Andy Worhal's 15 minutes of fame doled out a few milliseconds at a time.
Now these tools are fine for certain types of things: family photos, business promotion, catching up with old friends, that sort of thing - but, on the other hand, how many relationships does one need at time?
The answer to this is codified in something called Dunbar's number - this is the number of relationships (personal, intimate, social contacts, active acquiantances, friends, etc.) you can realistically manage at any given time. The range of this number is thought to be between 100 and 230 with 150 being a commonly used value.
So, if you have more than about 150 "friends" on any of these sites you are probably neglecting some, letting some relationships sour over time, or just aren't being a real "friend".
So if you have 10,000 Facebook friends what are you really doing?
Probably just competing to "run up the score" and being socially inept. How much time do you spend on any given Facebook post? Not much I reckon.
In any case Google, Facebook and all the rest are merely interested in making money off your incremental, few milliseconds of "fame" each day.
So what's the point of all this ramble?
Not much really...
(I guess I'll get back to the hostages...)
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