Social Networks are Killing Social Networking
3 min read
On the Internet today you cannot see a website without a connection to a social network. Facebook right now is the king but not too long ago MySpace was all the rage. Tomorrow who knows what will step up with the newest twist in the social realm.
This will be the downfall of the social networks, the continual expansion and diversity of social network options. Pretty soon there will be so much choice that you the Internet will start to get it’s niche sub networks that focus on the focused, specific subject matter or groups of people. Over time you will get back to the Internet’s roots of the usenet boards.
The Internet explosion into the mainstream in the 90s all started with text based social networking called Usenet. That’s all the Usenet was. A huge network to share information, making contacts, posting articles and updates. Today it’s the same basic concept only upgraded to the latest bells and whistles. The current technology is making sharing photos, videos, and ideas faster than before.
As the Internet grows and expands with more and more Social Networking sites every day, the number of choices is actually diminishing the ability to have effective social networking. The next time you are in a blog or news article look at the number of sharing options there are. Potentially dozens. The spreading out of the social networks is slowly changing the course of the social network hubs back into the Usenet sub groups of before. Except there is no central network to search from. As users start to see and use these other networks they will find reasons to stay, which are different to the reasons why you stay at yours and your friend at the other one. Pretty soon you are disconnected again socializing in silos of features.
The social networking companies are not making things any easier as they fight for the marketing dollar and your information that you freely post. Money rules the world. In the end it’s the users that will end up paying by seeing a social network break down and their contacts scatter around. A few years ago who would have predicted that MySpace would crash as fast and hard as it did. Analysts are already starting to get weary about Facebook’s ability to hold it’s ground and keep the users coming.
The next big social networking breakthrough will be one that creates a master hub technology. The ability to bridge all the diverse networks into one hub. There are sites that show updates and such from various locations today, but it’s not there yet. There needs to be a master communication hub, a cloud for the cloud, that you can update and no matter where your social networking cosmetic sites you chose is, your updates will get there. It’s close but not quite there yet. Without something like that, every few years the next big thing will come along and there will be a mass exodus from one to another.
The users want social networking not fad networking.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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