What is on Your Mind?

By abusing I mean that people have started posting random updates on LinkedIn like they post on Facebook. The profile pics are also not professional.

Everything in life has "good" and "bad"... this is one of the most basic facts of life.

Social networks, technology, indeed everything in the world has both positive and negative aspects.

Hence, focus on the "good" and not the "bad" if you want to be happy.

Yes, I've seen a bit more of that recently, too, but only from very few contacts. It's not why I use the network, and it's easily ignored.

I have never used this stuff. I don't see the attraction at all. I would rather watch paint dry. I would even rather watch dry paint age.

+=1

My daughter regularly nudges me to use Facebook but it still eludes me why i should be informed about the colour, amount and viscosity of my neighbours most recent dump.

I said it once and i repeat: The reported number of FB acounts is ~1 billion. "100 people like that" therefore is just another way to say "1 billion minus 100 people couldn't care less".

bakunin

Because a lot of people use social media very effectively.... you are only looking at it from the negative side; and if you have friends who are posting of "their dumps" then perhaps you should evaluate and critique your friends, not the social network.

A social network is a reflection of your friends; so if your social network is about as boring as "watching paint dry".. then you are making a statement about your social network, not the enabler of the social network.

I'm surprised that you guys do not understand this. A social network is about people, the technology is only the enabler; but the core are the people in your network.

I have friends in my social network who are avid scuba divers, adventurers, and sportsman who share common sporting interests (like squash); and I have people in my network from my pre-teen years, high school days, university ... and I can take one photo and share with all of them.

If they are bored with me; they unsubscribe to me; and likewise, I can do the same.

To argue that social networking is useless is the same as arguing that computers are useless because you have a calculator. What you are really saying is that you don't have an active social network; or your friends are not interesting enough to network with, or you simply do not understand how to effectively build and use your own social network!

Rather, your friends' attitude toward electronic social networks. I've never had a friend interested in my facebook page, I've only ever had employers trying to cram one down my throat for various reasons. All of which turned out to be ill-advised administration fads of little to no utility, quickly forgotten and abandoned by everyone involved.

Not to mention all the facebook problems there are to avoid -- privacy issues, tracking issues, and all the social problems Facebook enables as well as advantages, things we wish no part of. You can unsubscribe without any unintended social consequences? Or might people be angry and confused?

In the end, it's opening yourself up to a public mob 24/7, and giving yourself one more pot which needs to be constantly watched lest it boil in some way. Introverts prefer to pick and choose how, when, and where they interact very carefully.

So if you're saying facebook is useless to us because it's useless to our friends, that's fair enough. But that's a pretty self-fulfilling prophecy.