Anyone not into the whole "social thing" feel like they are missing out?

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dsiomtw

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Mar 12, 2007
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End of the rainbow
I gotta admit, I just don't "do" the whole social thing. I don't use Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. and I've never even used flickr or del.icio.us.

People who know me as "the Internet guy" are shocked, but I just don't have the time or the desire to use this stuff. I live my real life offline, and I see and hang out with all the people who are important to me on a regular basis.

With that being said, as a web app developer and entrepreneur I feel like I'm totally missing out. I would love to jump on the bandwagon and create some kind of social app/site, but I'm so out of touch it's not even funny. I've only recently picked up a droid incredible and until now I've only ever used my phone to make phone calls lol.

On one hand there's massive opportunity in the social/mobile space, but on the other hand I don't use this stuff myself and that's somewhat of a problem. If I used all these social sites I'm sure I'd have 20 different ideas for cool apps/sites, but as it is I don't and I don't.

Not sure where I'm going with this, just brainstorming some ideas for the new year and curious if anyone else is in the same boat ...

One of my new year's resolutions is to only spend time on projects that I'm passionate about - or at least interested in. In this case my passion for making money is in conflict with my lack of passion for "social" crap...
 


Welcome to the club of the antisocial/paranoid/introverted/spaced out/whatever you want to call us.

If you're making money without these sites and can scale, just do that. I hate them with every fiber of my being as well. You're better off not checking the shit every 30 seconds (no exaggeration) even if you are willing to forfeit all privacy & have a camera taped to your anus. Most annoying are foursquare's facebook updates "look at me, I just checked into this street".

A learning experience wouldn't hurt of course if you just set up a profile for your website(s), or better yet buy thousands of accounts & spam the shit out of them, or make a lot of girl profiles & auto ewhore, spread download offers, make a botnet whatever.

Facebook PPC on the other hand, is nice.

Also, FourSquare is fail as it seems to be stuck in some lame TV show half a century ago. It fails to realize the fact that the success of the internet and all websites involve the fact that the user is physically separated from the interaction.
 
Welcome to the club of the antisocial/paranoid/introverted/spaced out/whatever you want to call us.
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I don't know, to me it's almost the opposite. Most of the heavy social site users I know are losers who don't have a life and just have too much time on their hands. Their real life relationships are weak and/or dysfunctional and they seem to care more about how many fake internet friends they have.

But yeah I agree ... aside from silly teenagers and losers, who gives a rat's ass what you had for lunch or what music you're listening to at any given moment. If it's important enough, I'll find out the next time we talk IRL.

Sure I could keep doing what I'm doing, but I'm bored and looking for something new. I just have this nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me I'm going to regret missing out on the whole social/mobile thing.

Personally I think things like Facebook and Twitter are the biggest time wasters in the world and add very little value to anything, but obviously I would have loved to create them. :)
 
Fuck all the social BS. I have a Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. account and I really don't see what the big attraction is. "Wow I just took a big shit!" No one really cares. The only thing I can figure is it's more for conceited bastards that think they're so important that people will actually give two shits about what they're doing at every given moment. On the other hand I have been able to look up old friends since I moved out of state, but other than that I don't see what the point is. And I could have just looked them up online in other ways.
 
I don't use any of these things... Reasoning is it causes drama, people think it's real life, it's mostly nothing but complaining, and if I wasn't your friend in high school why would I want you to know about my life now?

And I'm not an introvert and I'm social in real life
 
I'm only 38 but I feel like I've been an old Geezer ever since Twitter got popular. Then Facebook's 500 millionth user made me feel like they shoveled dirt on my casket.

Face it fellas, (not you, rileypool) we are in a very small percentage of ppl on this planet that sees the evil for what it is.

This kiddies simply don't know what it is they are giving up in privacy... All in exchange for the "coolness" of letting friends see where they are at the time or sharing all of their life's tiniest details at light speed.

They think we are dinosaurs and make jokes about us exactly like we used to joke about our parents searching for the "any" key.

Yet in Shakespeare's time, and even as recently as Abraham Lincoln's time, the human race was capable of so much more deep thought and incredible intelligence. Anyone who studies history can tell you that our race as been devolving for well over 100 years and I see facebook as the biggest single step in that devolution to date.

At the current rate, we'll be the last generation mentally capable of tying our own damn shoes... Certainly the last one able to understand what "that spear-shaking dude" was talking about.:(

Anyone seen Idiocracy? Well mix that with a corporate-run 1984 and you've got the real 2050. If China doesn't eat our lunch first.

Man the future is bleak...

Thanks facebook!
 
Social networking will allow you, above all things, to see the weaknesses in the people you know. If that can't translate to marketing, I don't know what will.
 
I think facebook is a very usefull tool

if you ask a girl her facebook instead of the phone number success rate goes to 100%
plus you can see all her friend

And if you are fucking around just disable your wall and never update your status

just sayn
 
Well you can do like me have it to use for contact when you traveling alot.

I have about 300 ish friends on facebook but only 14 can see my wall and picture and that is the important people I talk to on a weekly basis anyway.

The rest I just have there as contact book, you can also choose that you don't want to see annoying people's update if you don't want to ;)

and yeah I dont see that fun shit a bout whoring out your whole life on the social media.

M
 
^But here's the thing. If you have something that's actually important to say to them, you've got your cell phone. Why not call them? See, I don't talk to people or contact them unless I've actually got something important I want to say to them or discuss with them. I don't see the point of posting on FB "Oh look, I just arrived in Seattle!" That's not important. No one likely cares unless you're heading towards them and they want to know about when you'll get there. But again, just give them a call. I really don't understand the purpose to social media.
 
FB has its uses and limitations, e.g., I friended first cousins of mine that I fell out of touch with and now we actually have a connection that was missing for years. I was able to make some new friends that share common interests, and I can see some of them becoming f2f friends. It is very useful to expand social circles.

I can't figure out why anybody feels they need to share their banal daily events with us, like they're making coffee now. Yeah, that's interesting. I made coffee, too. Let's all share our coffee-making with each other every day.

I have FB friends who post personal drama, which is interesting in a way that a train wreck would be. A grown woman with braided pigtails who friended me posts random spacey childlike thoughts, accentuated by little graphic hearts, giving me the impression she spent at least 2 decades on hallucinogenic drugs. I finally had to shut off her feed because it got annoying, and started to make a mélange of my cerebral cortex.

FB is okay to keep tabs on the people you do know and like. It's good for networking and making new contacts. I don't post that much, but think I found a decent balance of activity/inactivity.
 
There are a lot of us concerned about privacy while still maintaining social interaction online. There is a market.
 
guerilla said:
There are a lot of us concerned about privacy while still maintaining social interaction online. There is a market.
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Somebody on my friends list, a person who actually works in the AM business, posts his movements on Facebook pretty regularly. I don't know him well, but probably should warn him that he could jeopardize his home security by posting this stuff.

I did the same thing last year when I went to Vegas for Affiliate Summit. Not smart!
 
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, NETWORKS SOCIAL YOU!


but seriously, i don't care for the social world but i can accept it and participate
 
I use FB because I really think it'll be interesting to see some of the shit I said/posted back in the day, I guess it's somewhat like a public journal (gay, I know). I don't post any of my location info though. Privacy? Yeah, I make sure not to post anything too ridiculous.

It's also just a good way to see what's up with a lot of the people you may have fell out of touch with over the years; easier than calling than to just msg. And sharing pictures / tagging your friends, it's useful too.

Now I agree, some people are way too entirely addicted and do use it as a replacement for IRL social interaction; but fortunately that's not me. ;)
 
I still don't get Twitter, unless you're a celebrity or a brand. I don't get Foursquare unless you're a brick and mortar. I hate the concept of Facebook (we're probably not real life friends for a reason), but they are in a league of their own and there is a lot of opportunity from a marketing perspective. If you are a marketer and you aren't trying to use Facebook in some way, you're like a professional athlete not spending any time in the gym.
 
jsphfcll said:
I don't use any of these things... Reasoning is it causes drama, people think it's real life, it's mostly nothing but complaining, and if I wasn't your friend in high school why would I want you to know about my life now?

And I'm not an introvert and I'm social in real life
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This is the exact post I was going to write. All my friends use FB and I don't even know what they think about why I'm not on there. I just tell them I have no time or desire to have all of my shit out there for the world to see.
 
Wow. Talk about the huge variety of experience.

1. Social Media/Social Networking are the most ironic phrases going right now. Nothing social about them.

2. People are not distinguishing between SM for business and SM for personal use. I think it is lame to tell someone what I am eating. But it is hella useful to keep my clients/future clients updated about a new service.

3. If people follow you more than likely people trust you. The people that trust you are going to click on your links and become customers.

4. Without all of these social sites you are hoping and praying that the SEs bring you free traffic. These are new ways to bring free traffic in. The chances are higher that people click on your link when it comes from your FB page (not your profile). I know this because my traffic stats show it.

If you don't like it or don't believe in it then you are missing out. Find a way to do it and get it on semi-auto pilot. I really hope you don't though because I'll continue to take those traffic eyeballs over to my sites.

Rant: The internet world has come full circle. We used to have AOL & Compuserve to tell us where to go. Then the net opened up to where you could go any place you wanted. But the common person does not need this. They need organization and structure. They need the Facebooks to tell them what to do. Google does not help these people. Google is a fustercluck of organized information that confuses my mom. She needs Facebook and Yahoo for order/structure. You & I don't need FB. But most people do.
 
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patrick24601 said:
Rant: The internet world has come full circle. We used to have AOL & Compuserve to tell us where to go. Then the net opened up to where you could go any place you wanted. But the common person does not need this. They need organization and structure. They need the Facebooks to tell them what to do. Google does not help these people. Google is a fustercluck of organized information that confuses my mom. She needs Facebook and Yahoo for order/structure. You & I don't need FB. But most people do.
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I don't *need* it, but I use it.

I certainly don't post about what I'm eating every 3 hours, or the what the consistency of my last bowel movement was; but I use it much like I use WF STS, random comments/opinions etc.. while other friends can chime in.

When you think about it, it's a bit hypocritical of those bashing concept of FB who're dicking around in STS all day.
 
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