cowpies and roadkill are excluded from this offer
technology instead of the behavior

I just logged on to Friendster for the first time in what seems like forever. It was a little sad, since my reaction to reading my old profile was, "Man, you used to be funny." I'm happy to see that they've added a feature that allows you to add your RSS feed to your profile. After giving it your feed, Friendster posts the headlines from your blog. Since I use [fragmented] pullquotes as headlines on this site, I'm afraid that the little "My Blog" panel is not going to make much sense.

I recently created a MySpace profile after Melissa mentioned it on her LiveJournal, and I've now had the experience of a student messaging me to say, "I found you!" I'm sure other students have run across my profile on Friendster or whatever before, but now that I work with lower-division students, its a little awkward. Fortunately, I've only listed my educational background on the site.

Friendster was really fun in the summer of 2003, when I used it to track down old college friends, but, gosh, its hard to imagine that these things are the future of Computer-Mediated Communications. Regardless, there's an interested discussion going on over at Many-to-Many over the name "Social Software" and what directions it may lead. I tend to side with the skeptics.

Posted by McChris at October 18, 2004 09:30 AM
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the myspace thing is a little gross, socially speaking. & i'll say it, i have entertained myself a minute or two weeding through profiles off of friends lists, but after all of that, it really doesn't keep me anymore connected with those i know.

friendster on the other hand, unhip as it is, does keep me in touch with some that i wouldn't normally have kept in contact with. this does beg the question, well, why the fuss over relationships that really only exist or are kept intact over the net?....maybe something to do with instant gratification or existing in another self or maybe something about the state of 'desk jobs' and the supply of free internet, hm.

the more and more i tinker on these sites, the more i think, i should really try to create more opportunities for hands on communications. an actual phone call. a chat over coffee. what a concept! of course, it will be planned over a bulletin post.

Posted by: mel at October 19, 2004 01:24 PM

<beavis>Heh heh -- she said "hands on communication" -- heh heh...</beavis>

Posted by: Prentiss Riddle at October 19, 2004 05:41 PM
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