Social networking is the biggest thing in the world. Between Facebook and Twitter alone, that is probably the majority of what drives what we call “social network.” Throw in all the rest like LinkedIn, mySpace, flickr, stumbleupon, digg, reddit, and all the other “sharing” sites, and you basically have what most of what people consider the lifeblood of the internet.
Here I am now, with a personal/profesional site, and I don’t have a link to a Twitter or a Facebook or a LinkedIn profile. So why not? Well, I have to be honest – I don’t have that much to say. And really, I don’t have anyone I need to hear whatever I have to say on Twitter or Facebook, either.
Let me explain a little – I think that Social Networking and all the social sharing entities on the internet are perfectly fine means of communication and advertising (which is probably the point of most of them – marketing and advertising), but not everyone has a message they need to promote, or the need to have one-way communication with an audience of people who are only a part of your audience in the hopes that you’ll trade and be a part of their audience. This turns the tools of social networking not so much into actual communication or networking, but into a form of “Social Promotion.”
Reciprocal promotion, that is what most of social networking has turned in to. So we’re left with basically a sea of internet based commercials, some of which are only 140 characters long, all in exchange that someone will listen to your commercial too.
Much like the telemarketing flood of the late 90′s, and the email spam flood of today, social network is turning into primarily a marketing and promotion space. And if you don’t have anything to market or promote, you are drowned out by those who do.
So, if you’ve got the time and desire, and content, to fill the social network, more power to you. As for why there are no social networking or sharing buttons on this website, well, I don’t really feel like I have enough to say to warrant them. Maybe someday it will make sense, but for now, I am fairly certain I would be one of those people who has a Twitter account who follows a bunch of people but no one follows me. Even keeping up with the occasional blog posting is enough work for me, I am just not quite ready to get into the self micro-publishing business just yet.
Or, I can include the following button block at the bottom of all my posts so people can share share share it all over the internet:
