Saturday 14 June 2008

Slavish networking

Subject: tut tut
Have your little fingers been doing some naughty FB untagging? I think they have. Tsk. Photo was fine - you'll always be the most attractive in that line up.
xx
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Subject: RE: tut tut
of course i have - it's the only reason i go on facebook Jxx
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This email exchange got me thinking - are we slaves to social networking? Have we got caught in a net we can't escape?
Already alarm bells have been rung about the phenomenon of the burnt out blogger: http://tinyurl.com/669bvy
Are blogs, webs, nets, flickrs, plurks and tweets the perfect zenith of narcissism and neuroticism?
I mean, do we really want to give *so* much away? Was my maths teacher right - do the emptiest cans make the most rattle?
Have I just turned into Carrie Bradshaw?

To put the above email into context: I had tagged an innocent facebook photo of three friends, J (one of the tagged) swiftly undid my work. J has a high powered important persons job. For her FB is something that she signed up to in her student days when it was all the rage, but now it's just a headache.
I should point out at that this stage that J is a clean living, respectable member of society who is a credit to her company.

But what if she secretly wasn't? Well, then she'd be held ransom by FB because at any minute someone could blow her cover with an ill advised pic, post or tag.
It's clearly a jungle. So, thank god that in times of such social crisis Debrett's comes to the rescue: http://tinyurl.com/6hvayj

Then again, we journalists love it when anarchy reigns. Remember the Derek Conway expense scandal? Would have been a lot less fun without Henry's FB ramblings, and pics: http://tinyurl.com/4ggony

Sadly, it seems like the journo FB free for all might be soon to end. The party pooping PCC have realised that the minute someone dies, gets sacked, or wins the lottery the first thing the press does is log on and harvest their bebo, FB, Myspace, blog etc. http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/531695.php

If the PCC get their way J will no longer need to babysit her FB profile - of course the new breed of Js will have been forced to make friends with prospective employers as part of selection. For those poor souls the spectre of social networking will haunt them after every drunken night out.

The day Heat magazine develops the "circle of shame" application for FB users, is the day I commit FB suicide.

1 comment:

Alan Joseph Slater said...

Petal, I now realise how old, antediluvian, nay prehistoric, and, as you darling young people say; "uncool" I am.... I have no idea what you're talking about! And, more to the point, I think I'm safer not knowing!

Still, it's lovely to see you [and a certain other delightful young person of my acquaintance] re-entering the [& get this for techno-speak!] blogosphere!!!! [impressive, eh?]

I was beginning to wonder - just as I was getting used to it, in my own, old-fart way - whether bloggin' & tweetin' was just another of those twopenny ha'penny fads that occupy young minds for no longer than it takes to fasten a pair of gladiator sandals!

By the way, if you really want to be with it, where it's at, up-to-date and, as my dear departed ma used to say; "in the fashion", check out Recipe Number One on the Towers Blog.... it'll blow yer gladiator sandals back to the shiftin' sands of the pre-Socratic Peloponnese!

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