HallmarcDotNet

Sat, 02 May 2009

Social Networks

The latest rage on Facebook apparently is apps that ask you to list five of your favorite things in a category. I don't think I can even name five wrestlers, so it's probably just as well I'm not on Facebook. Although my wife is, and she thinks it's wonderful. I did once, long ago, join Classmates.com. None of the people I would have considered renewing relationships with ever seem to have joined. Before I reached my current viewpoints on Internet-enabled social networking, I also joined Friendster.com; but it has been nearly a decade since then.

Facebook, though, for me, is just not a draw. Yes, I do have a blog, which I even occasionally update; but as you can see, it's on my personal website, where I have total control of the context and copyrights. But when it comes to interpersonal relationships, I like to keep my one-on-one communications confidential. The idea of a "wall" where I get drive-by comments from acquaintances, or having the entire subscriber base (or even just the people already on my friends list) know who is in my social network, or having people tag pictures with my name, with or without me actually being in them — even with the "privacy" controls Facebook provides —  just leaves me cold.

Further, having to maintain personas on multiple networks (Linked-in, Facebook, Classmates.com, MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, etc.) to maintain separation between professional and personal lives, as well as hit the "right" sites so that the "right" people see I'm a member of the same communities… well, it's burdensome. The MySpace people want to use MySpace; the Facebook people want to use Facebook. It's just too much work for me. The single option of Geocities in the '90s was easier.

Finally, I've had a website since 1996. My Google PageRank is excellent. If people I already know want to find me online, it's a piece of cake. If people I don't already know want to find someone with my skills (e.g., recruiters), my resume is at or near the top of Google's results in all the markets I care about.

That being said, for many, Facebook and its ilk are pretty darn good. They have reasonably featureful interfaces, a critical mass of users, and the backing of major corporations to ensure they stay available. And that's fine; it's just not for me.