Posts tagged Social Networking
How to make sure you don't become a social recluse
Nice article with several tips to help make sure you stayed engaged with the real world and real people.
With so many great technological advancements, it is becoming so much easier to just end up staying at home watching TV, playing computer games, and working the social networks. That’s not wrong, but we still need to get out, do different things, and engage.
Even if this isn’t a particular problem for you, it’s worth a read. You might get inspired to do something new with your life!
HT: Ollie Francis
Google+ gets a hefty redesign
— It’s not even one year old and Google is rolling out a pretty hefty redesign to Google+. Yes, in case you were wondering, it does still exist.
Put Down the Phone and Learn to Be Alone (And to Listen)
Liz Gannes, reporting on a TED talk by Sherry Turkle:
All this time spent communicating digitally gives us “the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship,” Turkle said. “If we’re not able to be alone, we’re going to be more lonely.”
Some interesting and challenging thoughts. I definitely think that technology and social networking can create the illusion of friendship, but I don’t think that’s a given. I know from first hand experience that technology, used well, can enrich and deepen true friendship.
But it is always worth reflecting on our use of technology to ensure that we are using it to truly enrich our lives rather than allowing it to start to take control and pull us away from true life and relationships.
Facebook’s ‘sponsored stories’ have gone too far
Emma Barnett, The Telegraph:
The reason why my friend felt so comfortable to put photos of her baby on Facebook in the first place, is because up until now, she felt she was only sharing them with all of her friends. By adding sponsored stories into the border of such personal photos, takes away the personal and friendly feel of the site. It is invasive, as many people have been tweeting.
Totally agree. It’s all well and good having some ads on the side whilst we scroll through our friends updates, but with Facebook now starting to embed their ads into the more personal elements (like they are doing with photos), they are going to start driving people away. I don’t want pictures of Eloise having any advertising placed alongside them. It feels like a step to far.
Pinterest: the social network for girls?
I’ve had an account with Pinterest for several months now. Having posted - or, rather, ‘pinned’ - a couple of items after initially signing up, I haven’t used it since.
That said, barely a day seems to go past when I don’t get at least one email telling me that I have a new follower on Pinterest. Interestingly, nine times out of ten that follower is female.
After getting yet another new follower notification this morning, I decided to actually login to Pinterest and scroll through everything my Pinterest friends are posting pinning. It is row after row after row of posts/pins (agghh, I give up!) by my female friends. I didn’t come across a single post by any guy friends. I do have several guy friends who I’m connected to on Pinterest, but none of them seem to be posting anything or are in anyway engaged.
So, is it safe to say Pinterest is the social network for girls? Or are we guys just slow to catch on?
I will say that I really don’t get Pinterest. Well, I understand why it is such a hit with women. I can see why my female friends would love it and use it so much. But I don’t get it for me. I just don’t see it as something I can ever see myself getting into.
Or am I missing something?
UPDATE
My friend Rhiannon, a Pinterest user, shared her perspective with me that I thought was worth adding here:
I don’t really see Pinterest as a social network. I do follow some of my friends but after a while I stopped following a lot of them because, while I love them very much as people, they were cluttering up my beautiful Pinterest page with girly crap (yes they were all female, I’ve yet to see a pin from a male friend). So now I mainly follow people I’ve found on there who post interesting things or have similar taste to me. I think the ‘social’ side of Pinterest is an interesting add-on, but really not its main function nor what it is really excellent for; ie a place where you can easily and neatly collate and reference interesting stuff you have found on the web as well as an excellent and eclectic source inspiration from like-minded others.
Facebook looking to bring advertising to mobile phone apps
NY Times:
“We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven,” the company (Facebook) said in its review of the risks it faces.
Just yesterday I was talking about Facebook’s lack of any advertising on their mobile apps with my friend Chris. And our conclusion was that the moment Facebook try to implement mobile advertising will be the moment everyone stops using Facebook.
It looks like Facebook are prepared to take that risk. In truth, they have to. They make no money at all from people accessing their site via smart and mobile phones. And the reality is that more and more people are accessing Facebook only via mobile means. So for Facebook to be sustainable on a long-term basis, it has to find a way to make money in the mobile environment.
The big challenge for them is whether they can pull it off without alienating huge numbers of their users.
Interesting times.
Facebook is making us miserable
Daniel Gulati at HBR:
As Facebook continues to add new features to help us connect more efficiently online, the battle to maintain off-line relationships will become even more difficult, which will impact their overall quality, especially in the long-run. Facebook is negatively affecting what psychology Professor Jeffrey Parker refers to as “the closeness properties of friendship.”
Very interesting read. I don’t doubt that some of the scenarios he mentions are reality for some, but I’m not sure how widespread that level of addiction is. There’s no doubt that it’s always worth remembering that online tools are there to enhance real life friendships, not subtract from them. I love that I can stay closer to friends on the other side of the world due to Facebook (and other online tools like Skype, FaceTime, etc), but the moment we’re spending more time on Facebook and less time face-to-face with the friends and family around me, something has gone wrong.
Stamped: New social network/recommendation tool
I like the look of this. There are so many of these types of services coming out at the moment but, for the most part, they bore me. This is something I could see myself using though. Time will tell of course.
It’s iPhone only for now.
Facebook and Apple friends again? Facebook will launch iPad app at Apple's event on 4th October
Ben Parr at Mahable:
Facebook will launch its long-awaited iPad app at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch event on Oct. 4, Mashable has learned. In addition to the iPad app, Facebook is also expected to release a revamped version of its iPhone app and may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace.
Robert Scoble hinted at this a few days back and Mashable are now confirming it. It would seem that Facebook are going to be invited to release their new iPad app as part of Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement next week.
Apple and Facebook are known to have had quite a big fall out and really don’t like each other. So this is a pretty big turnaround.
Facebook’s privacy settings aren’t working
Hmmm. I’ve been playing around with the Facebook privacy settings. In short, they’re broken. (This isn’t an observation about whether they’re appropriate or good, it is purely about functionality.)
I use various apps that are connected to Facebook which post on my behalf. For example, I take photos on the Camera+ app on my iPhone and that app can then post photos to my albums and wall.
Anyway, I went to the app settings and set most of them to post to friends only and a couple to post publicly. But here’s the problem: they don’t do what you tell them to. My Camera+ app is set to post to friends only, but it has been posting publicly.
It seems that the apps don’t operate independently of the master privacy setting. So, if the master setting is to post to public by default (which I’m sure I’ve switched to friends only at least two times now…hmmm), then that overrides the individual settings on the apps.
So it appears that there is no customisation working at the moment. Which is feeble. Let’s hope they fix this soon.
I tried it the other way around too. I set my master setting to friends only (again) and then posted a link via the Reeder app on my iPhone which I set up to post publicly. The result? It only posted to friends.
Rubbish. I’m sorry Facebook, but in matters of privacy, you just can’t have bugs like this.
The new Facebook design feels even more cluttered
Facebook are in the process of rolling out another new redesign to its site. My first thought is that it feels very cluttered.
My eyes are being drawn to too many places at the same time. Should I look at the new ‘ticker’, the ‘recent stories’, the ‘from earlier today’ posts, the ‘people to subscribe to’ suggestions, the sponsored links, the birthday and events notifications, or the list of people online?
It feels like too much.
On a related note, I also still think that the font size is too small for the core Facebook text.
I actually think that Google+ has got a much better design than Facebook. The layout and font sizing is much more pleasing on the eye and doesn’t have the same clutter issues that Facebook is struggling with.
It seems that Facebook are copying a lot of Google+ features, maybe someone could suggest they start copying some of the look and feel too.
Google+ is open to all (and has several new features)
Google have just announced that Google+ is now open to anyone. And they’ve also released several new features for Hangouts as well as adding search functionality. Read the blog post for all the details.
Two weeks on: my thoughts on Google+
I’ve been using Google+ for about two weeks now and have now formed few more established thoughts about it.
Those of you who know me or have added me to your circles will know that I have been very positive about it. I like it, I really do. I think it brings together the best of the worlds of both Twitter and Facebook: I can share privately to family and friends, but I can also share publicly to anyone who chooses to follow me (and anything else in between depending on the circles I create and share with).
So I do genuinely feel that Google+ has a real shot at success as a major player in the social networking scene. I don’t expect it to wipe out Twitter or Facebook any time soon - but I do think it will make some serious inroads.
That said, I still think that a lot of people will struggle to see a compelling reason to transition to or even setup a Google+ profile. There are two types of people in the world: those who love meeting new people, and those who are happy with the friends and family they already have.
If you’re on Facebook happily sharing with your established family and friends, why would you move to Google+ to do the same thing (in a slightly different way) with the very same people?
This is why - initially at least - I think it will be people from Twitter who transition to Google+ much more naturally than your average, non Twitter using Facebook user.
People on Twitter are used to meeting new people and following people they don’t know. Facebook users only connect with people they know. And there will be a lot of Facebook users trying out Google+, seeing hardly anyone they know there (yet), and not knowing what to do. That is a big hurdle that Google+ has to overcome.
I do think the future is bright for Google+, and it is already taking off faster than any other social network in history. But for people who are only interested in connecting with people they already know, the barriers to entry are very high.
Comments
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Stop asking for Google+ invites
Duncan Geere at Wired.co.uk:
Google+ might the best social service that the world has ever seen, but until it’s widely accessible, it’ll be terrible.
His point is that getting an early invite to Google+ when access is limited will only guarantee you a pretty poor experience. A social network - no matter how good technically - is only as good as the social interactions you have there.
Which makes you wonder why on earth Google are rolling this out so slowly. They need lots of people signing up quickly to create a decent social experience when people join. Rolling it out invite by invite is a recipe for disaster. Again.
(I still want an invite though! Anyone?!)
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