More On Social Networking

Over the last few days on an email thread for Public Information Officers for Amateur Radio clubs, we were talking about implementing social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) into our bag of tricks for getting the word out.

As Bill Pasternack pointed out:

The figures for growth in Twitter will amaze you: From Jan 08 to Jan 09, Worldpress Research reported Twitters membership grew by 1,227% and Facebook by 256%. The numbers for Jan 2009 to Jan 2010 are expected to be over 5 times or more greater. Or, if you want to put it in raw numbers, 5 in every 8 humans world wide are likely on Twitter and 2 in every humans world wide on Facebook by 2015.

Now those are pretty impressive numbers, taken as they are. But if you peel back a little, you find a different story. For example, the increase in numbers do not take into account multiple squatter accounts, set up by companies for marketing purposes (or those hoping for a quick buck), nor do they differentiate multiple personal identities (heck, I have three accounts). It also does not show how many people have abandoned Twitter.

Huffington Post reports:

A new study, released April 2010, examines Twitter usage in the United States, finding that although most Americans are aware of Twitter, few are using it.

To me, social media is more like AOL than it is like the Internet. Yes, there are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon, but after a while, you have to wonder what is keeping them there. For example, here is a sampling of tweets from about 7 AM this morning from the main timeline:

• mrmarkmillar Please don't force Nolan to direct Batman in 3d, Warner Bros. REAL LIFE is 3D. It's not a novelty anymore.
• IAmSteveHarvey Good Morning everybody. Put your trust and hope into a relationship that is fail proof... Put it in God.
• Carine_Roitfeld Trying and Doing are two different things. When you try, you hope. When you do, you succeed.
• DaveGorman My must watch TV for tonight. John Sweeney. Panorama. The Truth About Scientology. http://bbc.in/dbXbz3 2 hours ago
• BestFilmQuotes "Sometimes, fantasies are better than reality." -A Cinderella Story (2004) *rptd
• USGS Seeing many tweets on quake prediction. Folks, let's set the record straight...no one can predict quakes...no one http://go.usa.gov/xA9
• starnewslive Delhi: labourers steal brass fittings worth 18 lakhs from water hydrants in CWG village
• mrchrisaddison Kim Jong-Il's been unanimously re-elected. Bit of an upset, that. My money was on his brother, David Jong-Il

Simply thrilling stuff right? Actually, the article from the USGS has a bit of interest to me, but if I had not read it, I would not be losing any sleep.

And as I have said about Facebook a number of times, I do not see the point. When I abandoned Facebook, my timeline was more a wash of game updates than useful information from my friends. Maybe I need more exciting friends but most only updated their status daily at best and the updates were interesting one time out of ten, if that.

So why is social media such a big deal? Why is it attracting so many people? Why is it so popular that people will buy credits to play games? And by people, I do not mean the usual suspects, but people that would otherwise have nothing to do with the computer.

If I could answer that question, then perhaps I could understand how to better use the technology, but I do not understand, and I guess, until I do, I will be on the outside looking in. But not very hard. After all, I did not understand AOL either, and it never really seemed to be that much of a negative either.