21
2011
Less Social Social Networking
As more people become fed up with oversharing or frustrated with the seemingly endless number of social networking sites available today, a new breed has arisen – the “anti-social network.” And it’s an interesting example of the focusing power of the Pinhole.
For those feeling real-time-update-overload, there’s PATH, the anti-Twitter. With a friend limit of just 50 and a strict posting format, PATH allows people to be more selective about the information they create and receive. RAPTR is a network specifically for gamers. Fowndr is a site for people who create technology. NoSo, Ruduzu, Woofer, Snubstr and Famstr are all sites dedicated to paring down one’s online social circle. And the recent release of Google+ allows you to define circles of relationships so you can focus your posts more.
Perhaps the most extreme example, Seppukoo, (now defunct) for a time allowed users to entirely kill off their online identity.
The rise of these more focused networks – Pinholes in themselves – shows that there is a limit to how much social media one person can actually filter and consume effectively without getting distracted. Even the hub of real-time information, Twitter and now Facebook, has its issues. Mainstream media still drives Twitter trends, so really, how unique is the information you’re getting? It’s possible to get what you want but not without some digging.
It seems more and more internet users are becoming more aware of their limits, and it begs the question — can Twitter and other broad forms of social media remain useful, or are they bound to become just more noise to be filtered through the Pinhole?
Flickr photo courtesy of bengrey.
