"A force sucking you deeper into Facebook?" "Sign up for Facebook or consign your career to the dustbin of history, etc." Please, someone get real here. Maybe LinkedIn is not the solution; it was never meant to be. And neither is Facebook -- we are. How ready everyone is to jump on the next fad and make that the Holy Grail. I am thoroughly impressed.
Yes, we do like to look busy and important and Facebook has got all the functionality to show that up front. It's uncanny how effortlessly one can build a whole network just by showing up. Well, we were paying attention at Woody Allen's class. And yes, I finally created a profile (a bare bones one) on Facebook to support The Age of Conversation project.
Fast Company had it right a couple of months ago -- Hacker. Dropout. CEO. And they were not talking necessarily about Zuckerberg, they were holding a mirror up to our... ahem faces. We're still trying to build to flip, aren't we? Put in a profile, mix with a few short phrases and a couple of predictions from "influential" bloggers and voila', les networks sont fait. Just like that.
Everything these days seems to be cutting into blogging. Mobile phones may replace blogging, Twitter replaced blogging, Tumblelogs are short and sweet (read less maintenance vs. blogs) -- and while you're at it, check out ecoTumble. You know why all these tools seem to be replacing blogging? Because blogging is still work. And now that we've tried it for a while and figured out that it takes time and effort, we're looking at easier ways to make instant friends, and possibly deals.
And let's not discount the fact that companies are now starting to appreciate the value of blogs and social media. Sony Electronics launched one just last week in an effort to spark dialogue and give a 'human' face and voice to the global corporation. Guess what? The faces are now on Facebook, sorry guys, you're too late.
Want to make a bet? As soon as marketers start to embrace this new tool/medium, everyone is going to find a new destination and creative outlet. That's the way we're built --
- we want to be popular, yet not feel crowded
- we want to be first among many, yet not one of too many
- we want to look busy and important and we quickly tire of being... busy
Have you noticed that nowhere in here there is mention of meaningful relationships? Links, walls filled with notes and busyness do not define who we are and our creations -- we do. In the defense of blogs -- yes, they are work, sometimes seemingly hard and not gratifying work. They are the product of our ingenuity and ability to stir critical thought and often enough thoughtful analysis and discourse. And they create the fodder and context for deeper conversations -- here and face to face.
Without the dialogue and the deeper reasoning and sharing of emotion, we don't have face time, we just have Facebook.