And I have a cowboy hat on with my battle jacket.
I have been using the ‘internet’ before it was called the ‘internet’ and even before that I used BBS. If you don’t know what a BBS was, odds are that your were in your diapers when the BBSs were king of the computer communication network. I miss those days when you had to be a hardcore computer geek to use a computer. It was a friendlier place when we were all working for the common good.
Ok, so we are in the Web 2.0 for the last few years. Web 1.0 was back in the late 90’s. Then the ‘internet bubble’ burst and the hand full of internet tech companies that had a business plan survived web 1.0.
Myspace and Facebook are supposedly a part of this Web 2.0. I hate MySpace, it isn’t even Web -.1 much less the Web 2.0. The user interface is horrible and users can add ten thousand animated gifs and pink backgrounds with yellow text with a size 7 point font. The only reason I have a MySpace at all is to promote my music and videos. Nothing would make me happier when MySpace goes the way of Geocities, Tripod and Friendster.
Facebook on the other hand had a Google type of interface. Clean and simple. It was easy to use and had enough places for content for most folks. When I look at someone’s Facebook page, I know where everything is at and it won’t crash my web browser with ten thousand animated gifs.
As good as Facebook is in my humble opinion, it will die out in a few years. So will MySpace. So will all social networks.
The reason is that social networks are social. Wherever the ‘cool kids’ go, the rest will follow. It is like a cool restaurant or club, one day it is hot the next it is not. MySpace is the hot internet social club for some reason. Facebook is the alterative. And both will one day, disappear or change in to something that only vaguely resembles what they look like today.
So Facebook added a few new features to keep it ‘hip’. Mini-feeds and News feeds, which in theory sounded like a cool idea. Why not make a RSS type feed of all the stuff your ‘friends’ post in Facebook? That way all your ‘friends’ will know what you are up to.
It took a few minutes for the masses of Facebook users to decide that Mini-feeds is the ultimate stocking tool. Well since day one Facebook has been an ultimate stocking tool. On the first podcast that we did on the Return of Whatever, I commented on this. People posted their phone numbers, instant message info, addresses and photos. That’s why MySpace and Facebook are popular to students, they want to know how to get in contact with someone they want to meet. It is a way for people to meet face to face and hang out.
So all the Mini-feed did was compile this info into one place for all of your ‘friends’ to see when they log on to their account. For many users, the Facebook people "MySpaced it up". I have coined that phrase, when you "MySpaced it up" means that something was working great until you add a lot of stuff that no one wants.
Now for most people, I’m glad that the good Facebook programmers worked two days straight so that users can turn this feature off. Because frankly most of the people on Facebook make no content that anyone would care about in mass.
I waited a long time before I decided to make www.herbertmidgley.com. I thought long and hard before I made the site, why would anyone want to come to my website? Well I had videos, music and photos when I first started. As time went on, I added my writings and my blog as content. And after a few months, I had a following of viewers to my website. Today I have more people read my blog because it isn’t the standard emo blog that most people make and they go to my website to see the archive of my great internet adventures.
Most people on Facebook or MySpace have no content that they make themselves. So therefore I could careless if they write on someone’s wall, go in or out of a relationship like a yoyo or post photos of them drinking from a cup with a lampshade on their head.
For these folks, please turn off your Mini-feed. I don’t want to know when you post something useless as well as most of your ‘friends’. Now if you make some quality content, I say leave it on. I have left on my feed when I post a note, add a photo and comment on a photo. This is what most people should leave on if your produce quality content.
Because I produce so much content, I almost never go to anyone’s MySpace or Facebook page. I don’t have time and my life is never boring enough for me to search through all of my friends pages to see what they have done.
Now if you produce some good content, like a blog that is smart and witty, I would love to read it. With the News feed, I have read a few blogs that I would’ve never had seen since it is impossible for me to go to all of my friends’ pages to see if they posted a new blog everyday.
So if you hate this feature, don’t worry in a few years or months, the cool kids will find something else to flock to. And so will you. And so will I if I can promote my “I’m a Nerd” song so that I can get even more internet fame. Because I am ‘The Internet Legend’. I hope you dig my content. If you are here, I guess that you do.
Rock and Roll!!!!
If you want to add me to your social network, here are the links.
My MySpace Music page
My MySpace Personal page
Facebook Me!
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