Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Social Networks: The Skinny

The other day I was watching morning television and they had this special segment called something like, "OMG. My MOM is on Facebook!" It was a couple of tweens who had recently found their mother on their social network. They were initially shocked and embarrased, but claimed to be fine with it after a couple nights' sleep
For me, it was the day one of my aunts sent me a friend request.
Yea. My Aunt. She's, like, 20 years older than me AND she's on Facebook.
Truth be told, it's a pretty cool deal. I'm a voyeur at heart and I thoroughly enjoy being able to kinda snoop through everybody's drawers and rifle through their pictures.
I remember my kids getting on Facebook a million years ago (ok. Probably more like 10 years ago) and checking it out and thinking it was great for kids in college. I think that's what the founding fathers were thinking too, but it has taken on a life of it's own now and everybody (and their aunts) are on there now.... Myself included.
But, it has piqued my curiousity about the whole Social Networking world.
My kids tell me that "MySpace is SOOOO yesterday" and they only keep their spaces up there because they don't really want to mess with taking them down. But, they've been saying that for a couple years now, and they still show up on MySpace every so often.
These are the things I have learned recently:
1. MySpace sucks. Why? Because it has all these bells and whistles and music just starts playing on most of the sites you visit. It's come to remind me of those dingle-balls that you see on the front windshields of low-riders. It's like a house packed full of kitschy stuff that nobody really wants (pet rocks, chia heads and the like) but they keep it all anyways... Complaining the whole time about having to dust all this stuff.
2. Facebook USED to be the coolest thing since sliced bread (or so they tell me). Having not really ventured there until about a year ago, I don't know what was so cool and supposedly isn't now. But, from what I gather, it's totally uncool to have so many apps available. It's like flair and e-swag: Everybody has some, but few will admit to it.
3. Tagged (I think it's called) and MyYearbook are officially the bottom feeders of the Social Network strata. I only say this because they are almost exclusively populated by people who claim to be "In a relationship" who are looking for "Fun and realationships" and basically Hooking Up. But, they're IN a relationship. Yea, you do the math. Not totally cool. These sites also come with an unGODly number of add-ons that can make you have the coolest site in your trailer park.
AND, this phenomenon definately deserves mention: Almost every profile I've bounced through has a self portrait that was either taken in a bathroom mirror (What?!?! You don't live with somebody that can take your picture?!?!) and/or are at the very least, suggestive and usually just bordering on pornographic. More crotch shots than you can shake a stick at.
In case I wasn't clear about this: Don't Go There. Seriously.
Or, Do Go There, if you want to feel like you need to take a shower after a few views.
Then there's Twitter.
My daughter turned me on to this and I've become a fan. Twitter is a little feed where you can post updates as often as you want. I've got some people that I follow who post about every half hour with everything from the most mundane ("Woke up. Got out of bed.") to locals posting traffic and weather updates. I like it and it allows me to be a Hover-Mom without a guilty conscience. It's also become a pretty valuable resource for finding things and people and whatnot.
So, if you want to mortify your children, or simply find everybody that you went to high school with - get yourself a Facebook page. You just may find your grandparents there.

1 comment:

Chimpsea said...

Aaaah I am recalling the fond memories of early Facebook days. I think it's only been around for like 5 years, but slowly going downhill :)

Love you mom.