Web 2.0, Social Media and Responsibilty

I'm not the biggest fan of this Web 2.0/Twitter/Facebook/my life in less than 140 characters crock o' kaka that's being forcefed down our throats lately. Yeah, I am on Twitter and Facebook, just like I was on MySpace, or whatever FOTM social networking gotta have it site. If I dislike it so much why am I on them? Because I've at least gotten in contact with people from my past that I appreciated their friendship or what have you. That's pretty much it.

It can be fun, kind of interesting, and there is occasional nuggets of something good. But for the most part it's just a bunch of crap. First, let me explain why, then I'll go on to the real bitch I have about this.

I just wrote a whole bunch and realized that I could sum it up so much sweeter and simpler, and hopefully with less piss and vinegar, but I'm never one to slack on the vitriol as it were.

Complaint #1: By tweeting/statusing every little thing you do/say/hear, you are effectively eliminating the very reason that we (meaning me and you) have to interact, to have conversation, to give me a reason to seek you out and just talk to you. Condensing our lives into little chunks of 140 characters or less is so demeaning.

Words of wisdom? You're not anywhere as cool as you think you are.

Complaint #2: People who feel the need to be attention whores and spray in my face how they think they are the proverbial cat's ass and somehow better than me because of x, y, or z. For serious? All it really says to me is that apparently your life is so lacking in affirmation or something, that you need to parade it in front of everyone, "Look at me! Look at me!" I have no problems sharing in the joys of great accomplishments and victories, but when it's in your face all the time, it loses it's flavor. And it really does make you look like a self-important doucheweasel.

Let me repeat that for you: You're not as cool as you think you are.

Here's the real meat of why I'm disliking this whole she-bang more and more. It all comes down to being responsible and accountable for what you're putting out there. Use good judgement about what you're posting, especially if you're a high-profile person and you are connecting your name with say, the company that you work for. Posting links to inappropriate and questionable material, however funny it may be, is damaging in ways that you can't start to believe would be. Same goes for making nasty comments about customers and/or co-workers. So you think some of your customers are complete retards, how quaint, but putting that in a place where anyone can see it will eventually backfire on you. And if you have people following you on Twitter or Facebook who happen to co-workers of yours, all you are doing is creating derision and eroding whatever bonds of teamwork there might be.

Failsafe for this? Create an alter-ego, a more anonymous persona to be as douchey as you want to be. All that hard work you've done cultivating those contacts and all the networking that you've done can be undone by a few missed judgement calls.

Oh, and one last thing, you are not as cool as you think you are. Take it from me.

Peace out, sinners.
The Rev.