Facebook is a fad!

I successfully resisted further soiling another thread that Tom started, and figured we could take the brawl out here in off-topic!

http://www.suntimes.com/business/3203486-420/facebook-cboe-500-percent-xxxxx.html

In reply to 1988RedT2:

I still say it is perfect for my intended purpose - seeing what my ex-girlfriends look like now.

Can't wait for facebook to do a faceplant. Guess everyone will Tweet about it when it happens...

I'm not looking to make money on it, but its extremely hard to network in the area of paranormal research. Facebook has been immensely valuable in that aspect. Not a fad.

Klayfish wrote: Can't wait for facebook to do a faceplant. Guess everyone will Tweet about it when it happens...

I can certainly understand not using Facebook, but I can't really understand the hatred. I think Twitter is stupid. I don't follow it. End of story.

Otto Maddox wrote: I still say it is perfect for my intended purpose - seeing what my ex-girlfriends look like now.

Yeah, that can be painful, sometimes. Probably the best girl I ever dated is still hot, 25 years later.

Is LinkedIn a fad too? That's the professional equivalent in my (face)book. Fads can serve a purpose, too. Just because things come and go, doesn't actually make them irrelavent.

I throw parties, go on dates, see pictures of my friends at places I wasn't able to attend... all because of facebook. But I was on FB when you needed an active college email account and you could fill in your class schedule and see the people who were in your class. It was actually a useful tool for meeting people for homework groups and the like.

You don't have to do the stupid games and you don't have to see that others are playing them. It's a modern day bulletin board.

RealMiniDriver wrote:

Otto Maddox wrote: I still say it is perfect for my intended purpose - seeing what my ex-girlfriends look like now.

Yeah, that can be painful, sometimes. Probably the best girl I ever dated is still hot, 25 years later.

This is why I leave them empty, shattered husks of their former selves... no chance of THAT happening.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to 1988RedT2: I still say it is perfect for my intended purpose - seeing what my ex-girlfriends look like now.

I've found past crushes and ex's and take some joy in the fact that they didn't age well. I have

I think most of the hatred is brought on by experiences similiar to mine. My wife is addicted and spends WAY too much time and energy on it. I only joined so that I can keep tabs/be in-the-know.

I just got a hula-hoop.

Im not sure what that article is trying to say, because it starts out rambling about Facebook shares, then goes on to ramble about Chicagos shady trading rules...but there wasnt a concise point I could see?!?

As for the facebook, I too joined a decade ago when College email was mandatory...I now check in once every few months to see whats going on with old friends and catch up with people far away. Im not on nearly as much as I used to be, but its still usefull.

Im not sure why people hate on it...but hating on something you dont use is tantamount to raging at speed signs because you dislike the font...totally irrelevant hatespew

I use it almost exclusively to keep in contact with my LeMons friends. I'm male and, thus, won't call other men to see how they're feeling. With FB I can stay in touch.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I just got a hula-hoop.

I'll offer this up just in case there are people who actually think that facebook will be relevant in 2500 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula_hoop

To summarize:

Hula Hoop: Toy with exceptional staying power.
Facebook: Fad.

I have always been highly suspicious of how financially viable Facebook is. The insane amount of money that flows around Facebook seems to be more of some sort of a gigantic financial fantasy circle jerk then any sort of viable business reality.

LinkedIn is another one that is curious. It SEEMS like it is useful, but I wonder if in reality it has any actual use other then a watered down business arena version of Facebook.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I just got a hula-hoop.

I love me some facebook fad. Spend most of the day with it on in the back ground. I get all kinds of vender info, have conversations through out the day, met up with long lost friends. Hell I even found out my fav place to eat is going to be on 'Diners Drive ins and Dives' today. But The reason I joined was for the games. I play CIV now and thats it.

So as long as it can still do all that I'll still use it.

RossD wrote: Is LinkedIn a fad too? That's the professional equivalent in my (face)book.

I've gotten a few requests to join Linkedin. Still can't figure it out.

If it's used to keep track of professional contacts, well, they ask me to link via e-mail, which is a contact....

I digress... What does Linkedin offer? That's an honest question, since I don't know much about it.

For all of the fluff that is posted on Fbook, I can't really find a professional equivalent that can be used outside of a very small community within my company- pictures, documents, data, etc. So how does LinkedIn help for one pro in industry A to a friend pro in industry B?

aircooled wrote: I have always been highly suspicious of how financially viable Facebook is. The insane amount of money that flows around Facebook seems to be more of some sort of a gigantic financial fantasy circle jerk then any sort of viable business reality. LinkedIn is another one that is curious. It SEEMS like it is useful, but I wonder if in reality it has any actual use other then a watered down business arena version of Facebook.

As far as I can tell, like Google, it's all about advertising.

The money come from their sometimes dubious advertisers hence the constant penis measuring contest with Google. The other source of income is from the data collected and sold. Basically to use the service for free the end result of sharing is the amount of aggregate data they have.

Not going to hate on it more but there is a reason I do not use social media sources with my name attached to them.

Geocities is not a fad. In the future everyone will have a website hosted by geocities.

The0retical wrote: ..The other source of income is from the data collected and sold...

Yes. Wait until they go a bit darkside and start charging people NOT to release all the personal info that they have put up there. That is where the real money is!

JoeyM wrote: Geocities is not a fad. In the future everyone will have a website hosted by geocities.

I am thinking of getting a MySpace page.

JoeyM wrote: Geocities is not a fad. In the future everyone will have a website hosted by geocities.

btp76 wrote: I use it almost exclusively to keep in contact with my LeMons friends. I'm male and, thus, won't call other men to see how they're feeling. With FB I can stay in touch.

I was going to say this should go in "Say What?", but am wondering whether it should also go in a supplement distributed to the significant others of GRM subscribers if said S.O.s don't read GRM... They'll get a laugh out of it...

alfadriver wrote:

RossD wrote: Is LinkedIn a fad too? That's the professional equivalent in my (face)book.

I've gotten a few requests to join Linkedin. Still can't figure it out. If it's used to keep track of professional contacts, well, they ask me to link via e-mail, which is a contact.... I digress... What does Linkedin offer? That's an honest question, since I don't know much about it. For all of the fluff that is posted on Fbook, I can't really find a professional equivalent that can be used outside of a very small community within my company- pictures, documents, data, etc. So how does LinkedIn help for one pro in industry A to a friend pro in industry B?

Honestly, I'm on LinkedIn too, but I don't have much of a reason to be. In my current position at my company, I don't have any responsibilities to bring in work, although I'm sure they'd appreciated it. "All about who you know. Networking."

RE: My comment on being a professional version of FB: Well, not actually like it but for in a professional capacity, it can serve the same purpose that FB can, just without all the fluff and pictures and games and crap... ie: See where people work, what they do, who they know, work history, where they worked. It's like a giant interactive resumé built for professional networking.