NewsFriends? Facebook Anti Social Utility: Real Friends DON’T Share
Old Chinese proverb: “You can hardly make a friend in a year, but you can easily offend one in an hour.”
In other Facebook words, SHARING MAY NOT BE CARING!
Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the Facebook friends water, two more “sharing” Apps launch. YAY!: Google’s Facebook App andNewsGators’ NewsFriends.
NewsGator on the excitement:
One of the things that makes the NewsFriends experience most fun is that you get to see which friend had this feed before you and which NewsFriends user was the first person to ever add this feed.
Fun? A NewsFriends competition? Why? For a booby prize honoring most Facebook time (wasted) logged?
Will using NewsFriends really make Facebookers “famous”? NewsGator:
NewsFriends displays the name and profile picture of the first person who adds each feed. You can be famous for adding cool news.
Perhaps the “friends” that are actually independently living their lives in the real world–rather than OMG chronicling every breath at Facebook–are more deserving of “first” and “cool” honors.
How about Google on Facebook? Are your friends really clamoring to be advised of all your Google Searches?
HEY: Less IS more! The personal touch really does matter, now more than ever.
After all, what happens if we alll strive to become Robert Scobles, racking up thousands of Facebooker “friends” with the goal of using Facebook as a personal, branded (distribution) sharing platform for every piece of self-produced multimedia content until we “friend” each other to the clutter breaking point?
Robert Scoble says he can’t be bothered with personal emails because he has “too many friends” (real and not so), and he is fine with that:
If you need to customize what each friend sees, email is more appropriate. But generally that isn’t the case.
Not the general Scoble 4775 commercial “social utility” friends and 100 real “beer” friends, case evidently, BUT the old (and still good) school personal etiquette case, big time.
What kind of sharing shows you care more? Clicking a Facebook button to push third-party, unfiltered content on an automated daily basis to dozens, hundreds of other Facebookers OR personally forwarding hand-picked articles on a case by case basis to those “people” you know will want and appreciate them?
Social utility IS the right word to describe how Facebook is succeeding in automating, neutralizing and devaluing friends and friendships.
UPDATE: Hey Facebook! Free Robert Scoble: Unlock Your 5000 Friend Quota
PLUS READ ABOUT A USEFUL FACEBOOK APP: Lending Club $108 billion Market Opp ex Facebook: Goodbye Banks! EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
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