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I think I found the purpose of Twitter and Facebook
If you recall a few weeks ago I was talking about how I didn't find any of the social thingies useful. I thought that maybe part of the problem was that I was not befriending anybody. I changed my policy to start adding as many friends as I could, but that didn't seem to help either. I signed up for all these systems, but I've been ignoring them for quite awhile. However, I didn't turn off their e-mail notifications, so they managed to maintain a tiny bit of my mindshare. The momentum of this mindshare I think has finally helped me to find a use for Twitter as well as Facebook.
Let's start with Twitter. Most people seem to be using Twitter for promotional purposes. I don't dig that. I also have no interest in reading anyone else's Twitterings, though that may change. What I have found is a reason for me to send Twitters occasionally. Throughout the day I sometimes get urges to communicate. Sometimes that communication is such that it starts a discussion, like this one. Those types go to appropriate forums. Sometimes it is to write an essay, those go in the Blog. Sometimes it is targeted towards a specific person, so I say it to their face or via IM. You get the idea.
Well, today I had some things to say that were very short. They weren't meant to start discussions, and they weren't targeted towards any specific person. They weren't URLs either, because then I would use del.icio.us. I sort of just had a need to yell something at the world. Since I have kept the twitter in my buddy list, I clicked on it and messaged away. I realized that if twitter hadn't been there, I would have selected a buddy at somewhat random as the victim of my message. I have discovered that for my purposes Twitter is a nice brain dump. I can just throw all my miscellaneous communications into it, relieve myself of their burden, and not care where they end up.
Now what about Facebook. Well, check this out. Right now, if you go to my blog you will see on the sidebar many links. There is my Listal, my Flickr, my del.icio.us, my Last.fm, etc. I may not use social networking sites like Facebook very much, but I do use plenty of web applications. Having links to all of these separate sites on the side of my blog is not elegant whatsoever. Also, it requires people to get many accounts on all the same sites as me in order to really get into my info that I'm trying to share. Facebook, I realized, is the solution to this.
As I've said before, I don't need Facebook to stay in touch with people. That's not useful to me because I have Google for domains. What is useful to me is aggregating all this other crap in a single place. By adding applications to my Facebook profile I can create a single page that combines my Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, del.icio.us, etc. This really doesn't help me that much, but it makes me much more accessible to others. Instead of having separate profile pages on a zillion different sites, I have one definitive profile page that combines them all. I still won't go to Facebook very often once I have the profile setup and organized, but it makes my info more accessible to others.
I still don't think I'm with it when it comes to the social networking in the way that other people are with it. However, I have found uses for these services that meet my own needs. It's definitely a step up.
Let's start with Twitter. Most people seem to be using Twitter for promotional purposes. I don't dig that. I also have no interest in reading anyone else's Twitterings, though that may change. What I have found is a reason for me to send Twitters occasionally. Throughout the day I sometimes get urges to communicate. Sometimes that communication is such that it starts a discussion, like this one. Those types go to appropriate forums. Sometimes it is to write an essay, those go in the Blog. Sometimes it is targeted towards a specific person, so I say it to their face or via IM. You get the idea.
Well, today I had some things to say that were very short. They weren't meant to start discussions, and they weren't targeted towards any specific person. They weren't URLs either, because then I would use del.icio.us. I sort of just had a need to yell something at the world. Since I have kept the twitter in my buddy list, I clicked on it and messaged away. I realized that if twitter hadn't been there, I would have selected a buddy at somewhat random as the victim of my message. I have discovered that for my purposes Twitter is a nice brain dump. I can just throw all my miscellaneous communications into it, relieve myself of their burden, and not care where they end up.
Now what about Facebook. Well, check this out. Right now, if you go to my blog you will see on the sidebar many links. There is my Listal, my Flickr, my del.icio.us, my Last.fm, etc. I may not use social networking sites like Facebook very much, but I do use plenty of web applications. Having links to all of these separate sites on the side of my blog is not elegant whatsoever. Also, it requires people to get many accounts on all the same sites as me in order to really get into my info that I'm trying to share. Facebook, I realized, is the solution to this.
As I've said before, I don't need Facebook to stay in touch with people. That's not useful to me because I have Google for domains. What is useful to me is aggregating all this other crap in a single place. By adding applications to my Facebook profile I can create a single page that combines my Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, del.icio.us, etc. This really doesn't help me that much, but it makes me much more accessible to others. Instead of having separate profile pages on a zillion different sites, I have one definitive profile page that combines them all. I still won't go to Facebook very often once I have the profile setup and organized, but it makes my info more accessible to others.
I still don't think I'm with it when it comes to the social networking in the way that other people are with it. However, I have found uses for these services that meet my own needs. It's definitely a step up.
Comments
I have no need for Facebook for its intended use either, neither your use, since I only use GMail and Google Reader as web applications. And I have no idea how to use del.icio.us neither see use in it, Listal I don't know, Flickr I don't use since I don't have a digital camera or ways of getting digital pictures, Last.fm is also something I don't use, and anything else you can come up with...
Nice read.
For me Facebook is a dream come true. Since I went to lots of schools as a child and was in many different countries I have many friends which I lost contact with. Now I just had to open my year books and type in some of my friends names and sure enough, I found quite a lot! Now I can stay in contact with the one dude in Pakistan and another one in Dubai, us linking each other and helping me find friends and helping them find me.
I was in Houston for a few weeks on holiday and visited a high school there for 1 week. I would have never stayed in contact with the people I met there if they wouldn't have asked me if I have a Facebook. For me Facebook is my gate to the world, as sad as it seems.
As for twitter, I can't really find a use for it.
That's a cool use for Facebook there. *gives Apreche dap* I use Facebook for the reasons Kiwi stated. I also love how it has a clean look and design compared to the gaudy My space. Plus it's easy to manage. Too many apps though. I ignored many invites.
Listal is a site I use to keep track of my books, dvds, video games, etc. I can keep track of what I own, what I want, what I've read/played/watched, and I can rate everything on a scale from 1-10. It's useful when you have lots of books or DVDs.
Last.fm/Audioscrobbler is a site that lets you track your music listening habits. You put a plugin into your media player program, and it tells last.fm what you are listening to. Last.fm will use that to figure out other music you might like. They then provide you with streaming radio stations that match your taste. While listening to the streaming station, you can give songs the thumbs up or down, sort of like pandora. It's mostly useful for showing people what you are listening to recently.