Social Networking

I'll be the first to admit that I have stayed very far away from online social networking sites on purpose. There is something about them that rubs me the wrong way. I can't really say for sure what it is, but I don't like them.

I played around with LinkedIn (simply because I see it as the lesser of the evils here). I can see how it could be beneficial towards career goals and keeping in touch with people that you might loose otherwise. I like the way you can see where people are and what they are up to even if you haven't seen them in a while. You can also find other people that you could potentially meet through people you already know, increasing your friend-base with people that you know already have similar interests.

I think the reason that social networking sites have become so popular is that they have the illusion of control. Which is both a good and a bad thing from my perspective. The users feel as though they have control over a part of the internet. They can change what they want, upload some of their own content and make it feel like theirs.

This brings a lot of people in because it allows them access to something that is, at least for the most part, difficult to do otherwise.

This brings in a lot of bad code on the bad side, as making things accessible generally makes them work worse and worse. If you know all the ins and outs however, you can make things work to your advantage.

So while I stay away, I see the appeal and understand it. I probably will still stay back though...