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Social network websites. To be or not to be?

There are many social network websites on the Internet and so many posts about them in the blogosphere. Too many? One of the bloggers says that there’s too much noise coming from social media:

…I don’t have time to sift through thousands of Tweets and Friendfeed messages and blog posts and emails and IMs a day to find the five things that I really need to know…So where is the startup that is going to be my information filter?

Scott Karp argues that it’s not an output, but an input problem:

How do you reduce noise on the web? Simple. Produce less content. […] is shoveling as much content as possible onto the web really the best way to create enduring value?

Andy Beal disagrees with them and says:

Here we have a discipline problem. Just because a new blog is created, a social network launched, or conversation platform released, that doesn’t mean you have to dive in and sign on.

This discussion seems pointless to me. I agree with the last blogger. People choose where they want to sign on, they can easily delete their profiles in various websites, they do not have to check those social network websites every day. If talking about the blogs, let’s give a chance to talk to everyone. And let’s decide who we are going to listen to. It is the same as to choose between bike or bus; wine or juice etc.

To be or not to be? Let’s not try to answer to this rhetorical question. Everyone can post on the Internet – that is a fact. Too much of everything for you? You do not have to try and know everything! Just use your favourite websites and know where to find relevant information. That is it. And first of all, learn to manage your time (try this). It should help if you automatically check your e-mail or Facebook too often during a day and then you are angry that it takes too much of your time.

For those brave people who like to socialize very much I can suggest a list for the beginning with ONLY 50 links of blogging, microblogging, social bookmarking, social news sites, social networks, video platforms. I am sure that you will find much more if you want. Good luck.

The age of Youtube

The Web is not just about information.

Web 2.0 is linking people…

…people sharing, trading and collaborating…

First of all, here is a short video about how we are using Web 2.0 or how it is using us:

These days there are many communities: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Youtube, Digg etc. (Social Networks here are in the broader sense, including Social Bookmarking and video sites.)

Youtube offers possibility to upload short videos so its community can see each other. They are dancing, singing, acting, crying or laughing, some of them just having fun and the others talking about serious things in front of the camera. Then they can upload that short video and wait for the comments, responds and other feedback from the Youtube community which is really big.

Good examples of how quickly ideas are spreading on Youtube are „free hugs“ or „Numa Numa“. The second day I was in Utrecht I saw some people standing in one of the main streets in the city center with a small board and giving „free hugs“. And if you type the second magic keyword „numa numa“ into the search box, you will see something like this:

Almost 10 000 out of 200 000 videos on Youtube are addressed to the Youtube community. Why do people need talk to someone they do not know and even cannot see? Actually sometimes people are more open with thousands of people they may not know than with their friends. The reason could be the loss of community. People feel disconnected in those huge cities and only roadways, TVs and internet connect them. But at the same time TVs and internet isolate. That is why community is in decline and new forms of networks communities are emerging.

We are moving from place-to-place to person-to-person connectivity. This phenomenon is called “networked individualism” (Barry Wellman). Our values are still the same (community, relationships, authenticity) but the world around us is changing – we are becoming more individualistic, independent, almost everything is getting commercialized. That is so called cultural inversion.

Cultural inversion:

EXPRESS: ↔ VALUE:

individualism ↔ community

independence ↔ relationships

commercialization ↔ authenticity

Youtube comes into the middle of all of this. It offers connection without constraints. That is why we are living in the age of Youtube now.

It will take about an hour for you to watch this video but it‘s worth to see this dynamic and funny presentation about what is going on on Youtube: