(There's a broken link in the LJ section)
I doubt that I'm ever going to entirely understand the "social networking" thing since I think of social networking as something that happens when you do something, not something that you do, but LJ always seemed to be on the border between the two anyway.
I'm trying to figure out how you have an interview without knowing what the business is ... or do I have my timeline mixed up and the interview is this coming Thursday?
Posted by Jonathan Dresner at December 3, 2007 02:10 PMBlast. I wrote a long response and then hit "cancel" instead of "post." So aggravating.
I do know who I have an interview with now that I've gotten the recruiter's email. It's not unusual these days for companys to post blinded ads. Keeps them from getting spammed by hundreds of unqualified applicants and stuff.
Because I'm not in the mood to retype my entire rant, I'll just point out that those of us who keep blogs and who enjoy writing and reading are just a teensy bit offended to have blog writing dismissed as "not doing something."
I suspect that the thousands of people "talking" to each other about cooking, home-repair, sporting events, concerts, books, and hundreds of other topics, would also not agree with you that they're not "doing something."
Posted by Anne at December 3, 2007 09:47 PMThat's my point, though. LJ is mostly blogging, though it has some of the community and connection aspects associated with Friendster/MySpace/etc. But the latter group isn't blogging, which is to say, it isn't really about anything except self-description and tracking connections.
I also think I was thinking about more than just your post when I wrote that, which may be why it wasn't clear.
Posted by Jonathan Dresner at December 9, 2007 03:10 AMOkay, I misunderstood you and I apologize.
To be honest, I don't really think of MySpace, etc., when I think of "social networking" because that's not my experience, but I really should, because that's what the world at large is thinking of when it uses the phrase, isn't it?
In that case, I have to agree with you that it's no substitute for "doing something."
Associated rant:
I have to admit that the spaces frequented by the younger crowd stike me as a bit scary. I don't think the combination of emotional vulnerability, hormonal instability, and "peer" pressure from a lot of distant strangers who are in the same state is a really a good experience for kids.
Writing, especially about yourself and your personal life, can mean laying yourself open, making yourself vulnerable in a very particular way. People will write things they wouldn't say to anyone in the world. I think children are especially at risk from such behavior.
Obviously there are tens of thousands of kids on there who aren't the problem cases that hit the news (suicides, etc.) and I've no doubt that spending time online isn't hurting most of them at all. And I know there are tens of thousands of parents out there, monitoring their kid's use of such places and making sure no problems develop, and I think that's cool. (It's so much harder to be a parent these days....)
And maybe I'm wrong and maybe a culture where you do just say the things that didn't get said when I was young is a good thing for us as a whole? Maybe we'll develop a more emotionally open, more responsive society in response.
Posted by Anne at December 9, 2007 08:59 AM