I find this incredibly ironic that this story came out the other day.
If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too? The answer to this age-old question is, YES! Just ask the millions who’ve succumbed to their peers’ collective urgings and have migrated to the ultra-popular Facebook.
Truth be told, peer pressure is the driving force behind popular social networking websites. And the Net is littered with one-time, gotta-have-a-page-there sites. Remember LiveJournal, the original social network of blogs? Then came the Friendster frenzy. MySpace showed up and stole the show with their bells and whistles. LinkedIn, a business-focused social network, brought cool to the cubicle. And now it’s Facebook, and tempting real-time status updates with Twitter. Net users are busy bopping from hot social network to hot social network, dragging their digital lives along with them.
Despite all the time a user spends adding friends, posting pics, and writing witty blurbs, a website’s relevance is dictated by the user’s peer group. To be popular — or even just stay in touch in today’s digital world — you have to log on to the sites your friends frequent. This requires staying on top of social networking trends. If not, you may be left out of the conversation. [globeandmail]
With that being said, I am now findable on Facebook. I already had a few people find me, and that was just after an initial sign-up. A cousin of mine that is going to grad school in Kansas has found Rebecca based on matching up last names. Now he has discovered that his family tree extends into Canada. How’s that for social networking?
I’m still getting unburied from a real backlog of projects, not to mention the ever present job hunt. (Yes, Vancouver, I’m looking at you.) So you can find me there, but my profile is really lacking. When I have time, I’ll do what I can. (yeah, right)
That IS really funny, because I was looking up (read: stalking) an old high school crush the other day, and found his profile on Facebook. I was surprised at how many of my other former classmates seemed to be on there, also, and started thinking, “Wow, maybe I should be on there as well as MySpace.” I guess I need to go pick out my swimsuit for when I jump off the bridge!