Why Social Networks Stink
ARTICLE DATE:
11.27.07
There's something annoying about the emergence of the now-ubiquitous social network. My displeasure reached a peak over the weekend when I was recording an edition of the Twit podcast in which Robert Scoble was ranking on the new Amazon e-book reader, the Kindle. His main complaint was that the product did not incorporate any social-networking structure. This was the last straw for me.
I mean, exactly how plugged into the community do you actually have to be nowadays to be okay with yourself?
On the whole, the social network is less about the social part and more about the sales pitch
These are marketing engines and that is why they are valuable properties. The number of users is important only because they are the chumps at whom the sales pitch is aimed. All that this amounts to is a giant marketing engine to be used as needed to promote goods, services, and personalities.
