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Socialthing! Stalkerish
Just got feedback from some of my friends that Socialthing! seems kind of stalkerish. It's a narrowminded point of view, but a screenshot of all a person's network feeds kinda gave off that vibe lol. It's really hard to get anyone I know interested in social networking.
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Inappropriate?You bring up two points to which I respong below.
1) Socialthing! (and specifically the Lifestream feature) seem stalkerish:
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You can make this case for the Newsfeed and Beacon within Facebook and pretty much any sort of updating from any one social network. I feel the case could be made that LinkedIn is very stalkerish because it has all of my past employment, past education and current address and contact information. Even when reverse phonebook search (the ability to search for a person's name and address by providing a phone number) came out, at first people said it was stalker-ish however people now seem to be fine with it.
Remember that those of us that participate in social networks do so willingly. We choose to give these services information about ourselves. We choose to provide our favorite things, our contact information, with whom we are friends, etc.
Historically, whenever information is displayed in a different way, some people see it as stalker-ish. I can only imagine the backlash that arose from the first phone book that listed a person's address along with their phone number and name. :)
Keep in mind that we are only showing you content from the people you are already friends with on those services. You, as a person using socialthing!, have already told these social networks with whom you are friends. Our Lifestream effectively gives you a 15,000 feet view of your friends in your social networks
2) Its really hard to get anyone you know interested in social networking:
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Trying to get people interested in social networking that are not currently using it is a difficult task. And it is one we are not trying to persuade either way. Our tool is more geared towards those people that use multiple social networking sites. The first function of socialthing! - Lifestream - makes it easier for someone who participates in a lot of social networks to find out what has been happening with their friends across their social networks (the 15,000 feet view mentioned above).
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Inappropriate?ugh silly typo :) rspong == respond
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Inappropriate?I agree with all of those things.
I think fear of technology has a lot to do with any social concept involving a computer/internet. Why I'm fighting to reverse that mindset, I don't know! It took me 3 years to get my mom to sign up for a Gmail account. It took 4 years to get my aunt socially involved on the net, ended up being Skype. My dad is on Facebook and MySpace under a fake name, but at least he's using it. All their mindsets changed, because they ALLOWED themselves to at least TRY things.
Granted, I'm referring to an older generation, but even in college hardly anyone knew what I was talking about. It just sucks that something new (like socialthing) comes out, and I get annihilated with negative opinions as soon as I open my mouth. -
Inappropriate?Your dad is on Facebook with a fake name -- hilarious. I wonder about this a lot, and it's a tough one. Computers and the Internet changed me from a sentimental person who'd rather be living in 1930 into someone who's excited about taking on the future. Here is a giant encyclopedia that can answer all your questions: Go!
I used to think that it was a liberal vs. conservative thing. But, perhaps people who are curious by nature are the only ones who will participate in these new social networking sites. Everyone else is waiting for the solid benefit -- like playing Scrabulous on Facebook or seeing photos of their grandkids on Flickr.
I have no idea how to tackle the problem of people being afraid of feeling exposed on the Internet. -
Inappropriate?It's sure a lot easier going on Facebook for example and writing on 10 of your friends walls, instead of calling them individually. It's all about being connected in my opinion. Even if a friends status read "Had a cup of coffee at Starbucks", It'd be something to talk about if I did call him/her, or check Flickr to see what kind of coffee it was.
Social Networking is a time saver, and a lot of people complain there isn't enough time in a day. -
Inappropriate?email + blogs = networking
