Who hasn't joined Myspace or Facebook or any of that huggy-feely crap?

[Hawkeye-X]

I haven't!

And I'm proud of it - I have seen MySpace pages and have NO clue what's the appeal about it.

Same with FaceBook (was invited from a friend to join, but passed the offer)

[JTG of the PRB]

1. But... But without Facebook, how could you find brilliant crap like this?!

"You live in a fantasy world, Bill! An artificial universe filled with artificial people and artificial facts!" Keith accused.

"Keith, YOU'RE the one in denial! Look around you - this place is a nightmare! You Liberals have created a nightmare, and the No Spin Zone is the only relief!" the Giant Head fired back.

"Bill," Keith sighed,"you're the one trapped in the nightmare. Someday, you'll understand that."



:hide:

[supernova]

2. I haven't but was contemplating it

for business purposes.

[LeftyMom]

3. I have an account on a specialty networking site.

I don't really see myself getting an account on myspace or facebook, but I'm trying to start a student group for an interest of mine at school and there will probably need to be a group account because so many students seem to center all of their social interaction and event scheduling on their myspace page.

[Shine]

4. Nope, not me.

not really my thang.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. I joined SpaceBook.

The place is full of geeks.

[vixengrl]

6. No--I totally have not.

I'm not social, don't want to show my "face", wonder in curmudgeonly fashion what it is with kids these days, wanting friends, and so on. In my day, we met "ftf", had drinks, and we liked it. Sometimes we took in concerts, mostly we drove to distant bars and collapsed on an acquaintance's sofa. That's what passed for friendship in my day, damnit--none of this cyberrelationship e-quaintancehood.

(Anyone interested in contacting vixengrl can totally PM....:evilgrin:)

[u4ic]

7. I've no interest in doing so...

[barb162]

8. I can't understand why anyone would join other than if there's an interest

that's very specific.

[qnr]

9. I haven't. I don't like the ones that I've seen

Anyway, I don't do 'social.'

[MissMillie]

10. I haven't

and have no interest

[NewJeffCT]

11. Never used it

Somebody on DU once sent me a link to their myspace profile when I asked what they looked like... only, I couldn't view the pictures because I was not a member.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

12. I like it for keeping in touch with friends from college

in many timezones. Its easier to shoot a message (and to organize different student groups)than phoneing, as many people have busy schedules. And check this out from my college:

http://csf.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2441736087



without facebook I would have had no idea about some of the shady things that have been going on. Dont be so quick to down it :)

[malta blue]

13. None of that for me....

The DH has a MySpace page but I don't even know what is on it.

[Poll_Blind]

14. (MySpace,YouTube, etc): Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy

Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy

We all know the plushy, rounded, pastel-coloured faces of Web 2.0. MySpace. Digg. Flickr. The achingly trendy Silicon Valley startups that are selling for millions to big media conglomerates and making their founders into stars. Tom Anderson. Kevin Rose. These are the pinups of the Web 2.0 generation - but little do they know the monster they've created.

My firm belief is that the net effect of the Web 2.0 movement will be a marked loss of privacy on the internet, one which leads to big business knowing more about you than it ever did before. This is why.

Defining the genre

Let's start by examining what exactly we mean by Web 2.0. It's a buzzword, a catchphrase - a candy-coated way of glossing over a core set of principles and technologies. Most people will take Web 2.0 to mean the rise of bloggers. The growth of social networking. The invention of tags and the contribution of end users to the final product. It means freedom to connect and share with your friends. It means desktop-like applications on the web. Whilst an exact definition escapes even the brightest, this can be taken as a fairly close approximation.

Let's take some exemplar applications. Digg.com is a brilliant example, since it combines many of these Web 2.0 facets. Unlike a traditional news publication, end users write the news that appears on Digg. News they've written, and news they like, is linked to their profile. Their profile is linked to the profiles of their friends, so that social groups can check out each others' recommendations. There's some funky programming and some blogging thrown in with it.

--snip--

Full article is worth the read. One of many, many articles written about what you give up by using these "free" services.

PB

[idgiehkt]

21. that is a really interesting article.

answered some questions for me and made me feel saner...for a while I thought I was the only one asking them, like why photobucket, etc are free, what's in it for them? Of course more of those sites are running ads now but still. I do wonder why they cited flickr and not photobucket; that article is from last summer but still hasn't photobucket always been kind of the leader in the photo-hosting field?

"Why are the companies worth so much money? Why is MySpace worth over half a billion dollars without a proper revenue model? Why is Digg allegedly pitched at over $20m (at the last count) without any idea of where money is going to be pulled from? The answer is - data. Information. Marketing. Every detail about you and me. That is where the money is.

But the argument holds weight, nonetheless. The one thing the Web 2.0 sites have in common is that they are furiously mining information about you and your buddies. What you like. What you like that your buddies like. Digg knows what stories you've submitted, what demographic you're in, how other people in your demographic react to what you post. MySpace can break its users down by almost any statistic imaginable, then mine that data for more information about what it is you're doing and sharing online, and how that relates to your friends in the same (or different) demographics.

Flickr is perhaps one of the most interesting ones. Search for 'cat', and Flickr will record the most popular photo clicked. By associating the colour and picture data within photos with keywords used to search, Yahoo is slowly building a database of human identification. It has often said that the differentiator between Yahoo and Google, going forward, is that Yahoo wants the web processed by humans and Google wants it done by robots. Google uses algorithms to generate anything to do with its business. Yahoo, with its acquisition of Flickr and Delicious and whatever else is on the horizon, wants people - and social networks - to define how it does business.

The EndGame
So Murdoch knows everything about MySpace. The financial gurus at Yahoo know all about your personal thoughts, pictures and bookmarks. The guys at Google know everything about your search habits, and you can bet they want to link 'em up to your email and calendar and whatever else you end up using online. How much is that data worth? With marketing spends online going ever upwards, as more and more of the world 'logs on', you can bet that it's only going to get more and more valuable."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. Not me!

I can't think of any reason why I would put a bunch of personal stuff on the Internets. There's so little privacy left as it is.

Not that anybody would be interested in my stuff anyway.

[IndianaJones]

16. I have not. Is it supposed to be huggy-feely? nt.

[fortyfeetunder]

17. Not 4 me

guess i'll stay behind in the last millennium, LOL.

[femmocrat]

18. I haven't either.

I've never even visited them. If it takes long to download, I have no interest in it.

[bluethruandthru]

19. Nah....I have no friends!

:)

[ThatsMyBarack]

20. I've got a YouTube account.

I hope that doesn't count!

[Left Is Write]

22. Without MySpace....

I wouldn't have reconnected with two particular groups of people from my past, including some people I was close to back in my radio days in Wisconsin twelve years ago.

I'm really glad to have these people back in my life. I originally joined MySpace to keep an eye on my daughter's activities, but it turned into something nice for myself also.

[Rue]

23. My 54-year old dad has a MySpace page.

I don't. The way things are today, I prefer as little exposure as possible.

[Redstone]

24. Not me, cool.

I don't have the time, nor do I feel the need.

Redstone

[cloudbase]

25. I haven't.

Never will, either.

[Hugin]

26. They get huggy-feelies over at Myspace and Facebook?

*lower lip trembles*

We don't get any of that here!

:cry:

[Fire Walk With Me]

27. Me.

[regularguy]

28. Thinking about it.

I've been uploading my music to soundclick.com over the years, but it seems like no one goes there anymore. Most people seem to be putting their music up on myspace now. My problem is that just about every myspace page I've ever seen has been ugly and totally unintelligible, so the motivation to set one up is pretty low.

[Lisa]

29. I haven't even got an answering machine or an iPod!

Or my own website ... or a Blackberry or a cell phone with text-messaging capabilities (or a cell phone, period). The only stuff about me on the Internet is posted by other people (workplace, etc.) So I feel I'm qualified to comment on not being into the newest technological paradigm.

Any deficiencies in my life, I feel, are NOT due to a lack of Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, etc.

[AlCzervik]

30. i haven't because i know for a fact i wouldn't update it, after day 1 the bloom would

be off the rose--i have a really short attention span.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

31. well i am proud that i have these pages because i have so many friends

in so many far away places that its easier to have them on three sites.

myspace

friendster

orkut.