Social Networking Sites: What is All the Buzz About?

Nowadays, you can't walk down the street without texting on your Blackberry and listening to your iPod at the same time. One can't help but wonder - are we becoming an ADD society? While there is nothing wrong with people who have ADD medically, there may be something a bit unsettling with ten year olds texting their teachers about homework assignments on a $400 Blackberry their parents bought for them. Call me crazy, but it seems that the old ways of the world have recently fallen off and hyper-communication has been left in its place.

Most of you have heard of Tom. He is the all-knowing MySpace master who can help answer any questions you may have regarding different applications and settings dealing with that particular network. Tom was there when you needed a flashy webpage, wanted to display photographs of yourself to your friends, create events, advertise your products and so on. He was riding high and the celebrities loved him and his product (Lindsay Lohan's posts wound up on the People magazine website and Katy Perry's posts received thousands of clicks almost daily after her she sang about kissing a girl and liking it). Just when you were about to become convinced to join the juvenile league of super posters, another website started making the news.

Facebook is considered by many to be an alternative to MySpace's flashy, eye-popping template-laden interface. Facebook is not as colorful as MySpace, but it has other attributes that outshine its predecessor. One such item is the ability to "like" a friend's post without having to add a comment, something that allows lurkers to voice an opinion without having to leave the comfort of their profile. Facebook also utilizes a more integrated search engine to locate friends and family, suggesting people you may not have remembered until seeing their picture again in front of you on your page. Over time, MySpace has added some of these features to better compete with a changing market, but Facebook has and, I predict, will remain the leader in these new developments. The one good thing MySpace has to its name that Facebook has yet to tackle is the calendar feature. MySpace allows you to enter times, dates and locations for gigs, meetings, events and the like while Facebook does not.

So, just when you're getting used to MySpace and Facebook being around and you're starting to feel like maybe it's not so bad after all, another program makes the news. The words "tweet", "twat" and "twit" seem to be on everyone's lips. When you're watching TV, you're told that you can follow that particular show on Twitter. Follow a show? On something called Twitter? You reluctantly roll your eyes and wonder what kind of product is out there that could possibly beat the last two that have been on the scene already and then your child, maybe that same ten-year-old that walks around with a Blackberry, tells you it's better than both MySpace and Facebook. You roll your eyes again. Then you go to the Twitter website and see that maybe there is something to it. Twitter allows you to stay connected to all of your friends and family (as well as celebrities) through things called "tweets". Basically, a "tweet" is a comment or return comment, question, etc. between you and your "followers". Yes, you are now famous and you have followers. Twitter also allows you to post pictures, links, favorites and more. The website is not fancy, but it is functional and arguably easier to navigate than MySpace or Facebook.

All of these technological developments beg the question - does anyone pick up the phone and call their friends anymore? What is all the buzz about? Is it better to be popular and add three hundred people as friends on your page that you've never even met face-to-face than to call one or two on the telephone once a week? History has shown over time that if you don't continue moving ahead you'll be left behind. Technology has following suit.

I hesitate to end this article yet because I'm guessing that right after I do, there will be another new website vying for the front burner of the world's communication stove that I would've liked to comment on. Still, I should let you go so that you can check your "tweets", "wall posts" and "application requests".