Post will be delivered to this blog every weekday morning (UK time). On Fridays we will offer a subject for debate: this may be topical or philosophical, frivolous or serious. We welcome views, rants, stories, remarks and humour in the comments box. We ask that you remain polite, focus on opinions or statements rather than personalities, and avoid insults or swearing. The debate will be open throughout the weekend, so feel free to come back and add further thoughts as often as you like. Most of all: have fun!
So, this weekend's debate is about social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook, Bebo). Are they useful extensions to our communication options, or a triumph of style over substance?
If there is a subject you would like to see debated here, do email your suggestion to one of us. We will try to incorporate suggestions from commenters, although of course this will depend on the number of suggestions we receive.
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8 comments:
Social networking sites - (in my very limited experience) - a place where others can post images of me looking fat (really), knackered or just plain stupid. I have yet to succumb to Facebook etc as I wouldn't trust myself to not become totally consumed with it - a bit like what that Amy Winehouse bird became with drugs and all that.
Also, Helen - check your time-zone on your settings page - I'm fairly sure that you didn't post this at 2:01am... or maybe you did.
Any more for any more...?
I am a bit perplexed by Facebook. My friends on it are either people I'd talk to and e-mail anyway, or people who I barely know and don't want to contact.
It seems a bit daft, really. If I want to speak to someone I'll e-mail them - poking them with a zombie doesn't seem the way to go....
Argh and I was doing so well. Be gentle with me, it's my first time! Have now changed settings to GMT, after some head-scratching and swearing.
Four comments, wow! Except two are from us and one was evidently thought better of. Hello and welcome, LB. Is it good form to comment on your own blog, or is it akin to laughing at your own joke? Oops, I'm supposed to be discussing social networking. Only thing is, I don't know anything about it, which is why I posed the question. I've only just reached blogging, don't have an iPod and haven't a clue what Wii is. Does this make me look old?
I did MySpace for a while and got quite excited because my favourite band asked me to be their friend! But that was the only really interesting thing that happened there, I found maintaining it rather tedious and time-consuming, and got bored really quickly.
I have many friends on Facebook and have an email folder somewhere where I've stored all the requests for me to join in, but people say it can be terribly time-consuming, I don't really need another internet addiction, and as far as I can work out it won't make any qualitative difference to my life (although I've ignored it so assiduously I don't really understand what it's all about).
I suspect these things are very fashion-driven, and as with most such things, only the young folk have the time or the energy to keep up with and get excited about it, as well as the fickleness and high lifestyle turnover to happily move on when the next new fad comes in. Personally I find I get as much internet-based social netwroking as I want or need (and indeed often more than I really have time for) from blogging and internet forums. My "real-world" friends are old like me and mostly still don't "get" blogs, never mind anything else... and that suits me, as popping round someone's house for a cup of tea and having a chat on the phone are enjoyable activities I'd be sad to lose.
I have to say I'm rather proud of the incredibly-long sentences in my last comment. Apologies though, to anyone attempting to unravel them and extract some sense...
Ooh this is the first time I've been a blogger...rock and roll eh. I didn't manage to master MySpace but Facebook has been great in getting on touch with people I'd forgotten existed, including my brother. At the same time I know a few people who seem to be a bit too obsessed with the whole Facebook thing which is a bit worrying...and sad I guess. In addition to this, when one of my friends, who did manage to master MySpace, texted me to let me know she was 'now friends with The Killers and Shayne Ward' I was kind of pleased I wasn't cool enough to be on MySpace. Bring back the pen and paper...preferably before my friend believes she's best friends with the whole of the top 40.
Facebook, My Wide Open Spaces, etc., probably can't be stopped, annoying as they are. I have opened a page in each before I knew what they were about, but I don't respond to offers of friendship and the like. They are simply too stupid.
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