A f*ckin' birdie told me

Magnet #1111 - Blue bird

Had to use this little Borders-going-bankrupt birdie magnet for today because I noticed that a lot of my email traffic lately has been about Twitter.

Whether it's me helping a new client become more active with their social media outreach, emailing relevant Tweets to colleagues and friends, or gossiping about who said what or who @'d who, Twitter keeps ending up in my email inbox. And my Facebook. And messageboards. And texts. It's crazy.

I do kinda wonder what the stats are for folks actually using the Twitter home page, versus using social media clients like TweetDeck or MediaFunnel or HootSuite, etc. I will say that when Tweeting for a client, the only time I feel safe that I won't eff it up is when I'm on the client's actual Twitter page, versus my own page or my TweetDeck.

That's why whenever I see any stories of social media practitioners messing up, I cringe for whomever hit enter or send on a bad Tweet.

@Adfreak Tweeted their coverage of the ChryslerAutos Twitterfeed Eff up, and I felt bad for the employee who got fired over it. Mind you, I laughed because it was a funny as hell Tweet, but still, felt bad. It wasn't the profanity that got me, because the world's full of the F word (I mean, hello, Oscars). But, when the @ChryslerAutos av is stamped "Imported from Detroit" yeah, saying Detroit Motor City "can't fucking drive" flies in the face of that messaging. And what else could Chrysler do but Tweet a very corporate response...on their blog?

Their response was completely opposite of the Red Cross beer story from last month, where they completely lampooned it and made the situation work for them and Dogfish beer. I don't know if they fired the non-drunk employee, but they handled the situation deftly, and with rather endearing personality.

Honestly, for me, it's like watching a train wreck, seeing brands and individuals navigate social media. Twitter and Facebook are full of branding screw-ups because of multiple account handling, and we'll see more and more in the next few years.

As for me, my love/hate with Twitter continues...but it doesn't stop me from waiting for that next train wreck. I just hope it's not me.

Slow down, you Tweet too fast

Magnet #1053 - Tweeting about Tweeting

Or, in this case, magnetblogging about Tweeting...again.

I've both extolled and reviled the virtues and vices of Twitter before, but when I saw yesterday that someone told Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran that he was Tweeting too much (he's not, by the way), I knew I had use this Cafe Press magnet! (Incidentally, Simon and my first crush John Taylor are both on Twitter. #FF!!!)

I decided a while ago that, despite my earlier hate-on for Twitter, (and you know this if you're following me) that I was just gonna Tweet when I feel like it. Unfortunately for you guys...it's a lot.

But it's fun telling and Twitpic'ing people where I am, what I'm doing, where I'm headed, what I'm thinking, what I'm watching.

If you want to know, great, if you don't, unfollow or hide me.

I like helping get the word out for certain exhibitions, museums, buildings and random places to visit. I like showing you my city and the things I'm seeing. I like sharing my random thoughts about current and not-so-current movies and tv shows (and cuteboys in them, let's not forget about cuteboys). Besides, it's not like I'm Tweeting about laundry or other chores (although I have), what I'm having for lunch (although I have), or what my hair looks like (although I have). (Oh, Rationalization, you are SO my friend. Are you following me?)

Ok. I do Tweet a lot, which is why I get so annoyed when someone doesn't know what's going on with me. No. Seriously. I do. Most of my Tweets feed right to Facebook. So, if you don't know what's going on with me, I really do look at you with a blank stare when you ask. (But, I suppose that's another magnetpost altogether.)

Speaking of news...my breaking news also comes via Twitter/TweetDeck lately - sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad (see my incredibly erroneous and shameful RT of someone reporting on the demise of a very much alive Morgan Freeman - won't do that again!). Earthquake in Cali? Got it. Snow days in NC? Got it. David Tennant & Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing? Got it. And every time (well, maybe not for that Much Ado thing), you can almost count the minutes going by before it makes it to CNN on TV. It's nuts.

Oh. That Much Ado announcement? Totally bought my tickets within hours. Someone once called me the busiest unemployed person they know...mostly because even though I've lived in NYC since 1995, there's still stuff to do here. And it just so happens that a lot of the activities added to my calendar are taken directly from Twitter.

Does it seem like Twitter's too much to deal with? Yeah, it is. And frankly speaking, even when I'm employed, I'll always have time for Tweeting. It's 140 characters, who doesn't have time for that? I'll allow that keeping up with all the folks I follow is a bit of a pain, but that's where handy-dandy TweetDeck comes in.

I use TD because it's allowed me to find, follow and connect with fun random new people all over the world. The lists columns help me follow my favorite actors and TV critics. The cool search function also lets me follow hashtagged threads of certain shows (Hawaii Five-O, Downton Abbey) and events (SDCC, Much Ado, TCA)...which in turn helps me find and follow random new people who have common interests.

For example, last night's #downtonPBS thread was insane. The TweetDeck pop-up box should have just stayed up, because within seconds of Laura Linney's intro, 400 hashtagged Tweets popped up...and still hasn't stopped popping, even though the episode ended last night at 10:30.

While I was able to find new people with interesting things to say, the obvious downside of the incessant chatter, is that I was too busy giggling at what people had to say about the show, rather than actually watching the show. That's a slight problem, of course.

I have this same issue each week during #bulletproofvesttime on Hawaii Five-0. Which is ok, because I always rewatch that show anyway. (What? Didn't you see? #Bulletproofvesttime!)

I know. I've come a long way from hating Twitter. And it's true that I have a lot of friends who are already bored to death with Twitter. I mean, it's been around for a while, and for some, it's a little past the peak. But, for now, it's a fun diversion and useful tool.

And finally, speaking of tools...The folks over at Edelman have created this fantastic little thing called a TweetLevel, to measure your Twitter relevance across four different factors:

• Influence - something about followers and if they're ReTweeting you
• Popularity - based on how many people follow you and number of lists you're on
• Engagement - how you're engaging with certain communities, based on @replies
• Trust - how/if people are ReTweeting what you have to say

It's supposedly still in beta, according to their site, and they haven't yet solved the "Twitter influence" (Twinfluence?) question, but this tool helps gauge your own activity for better or worse.

Of course, I'm sure they're pointing and larfing at how often I check my own TweetLevel (it's a bit like ego surfing, it is), but it really is interesting to see how the numbers fluctuate based on your Twitter activity.

Goodness. Let us hope they don't create one for Facebook.

To infinity and beyond, indeed

Magnet #1003 - Fredric Edwin Church's Aurora Borealis

What a gorgeous painting. My friends brought this back for me a few weeks ago.

Do you suppose, back in 1860, when Fredric Edwin Church painted his Aurora Borealis, that he ever thought that man would be Tweeting the same image...from space?

While I get it's totally a PR mechanism for NASA, I can't even believe that all the astronauts are allowed to Tweet...much less from space. And holding Tweet Ups? Wha?

It's like the coolest thing - ever. The astronaut who Tweeted that image (@astro_soichi) has already gone home, so I've started following @astro_wheels and @NASA_Astronauts. I won't lie, it's mainly because in my head, I'm totally envisioning how the kids from Space Camp would have Tweeted. (@JinxtheRogueRobot: "@Max and @Jinx, friends foooooreeeeeever!" or @ImTish: "Whip me, beat me, take away my charge card, NASA'S TALKING!")

Anyway, from this Church painting to those Twitpics, it's truly unbelievable how far we've come in the last couple of centuries.

Back then, it was amazing that Dr. Isaac Hayes was leading an expedition to the Arctic, and that he made it back alive. He's the one who brought back sketches from his trip, and gave them to Church to paint. Folks actually considered this painting a portent of doom, an omen for the ensuing conflict between North and South.

Now, we're marveling over Twitpics from space. Whew.

Lobster & magnet

Magnet #551 - Magnetic Lobby

Oh. My. Lavery.

I could use this plush magnet to talk about a messageboard that I've belonged to since 2006:

- a tight-knit group of posters tied together by their expulsion from Television Without Pity, a love of a silly soap opera, all things television, film, food, etc., and excessive use of cute wordicons;

- a really great support circle of friends who band together against the evils of the world smooshing more love and support than sometimes the people down the hall; and

- a slightly off-beat bunch of folks who have an untold love for a Lobster.

I could.

But I won't.

What I will say is that one of those friends sent me this superadorable and yet slightly scary and yooooooge (about the size of my hand!!!) Wild Clingers Magnetic Lobster made by Wild Republic.

Their mission statement is educating younger generations about animal kingdom, in a fun and creative way. They have some terrific toys on their site. Very cool. And? Mission so accomplished!

This guy's fabulous. Seriously. I think his magnetphotoshoot took a good five minutes. I had to find the right angle! His best side! He's freakin' awesome. And he takes direction well.

And you just know they have a collection of magnetic animals. Which I now have to collect.

On top of that, apparently, a portion of the proceeds go toward Abhaya Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit that provides housing, education and support to disadvantaged kids worldwide!

But, here's why I love these guys. They attached a whole insert on Magnet Safety! When I started typing this, I had thought it was pages and pages of Magnet Safety. Instead, it's this one paragraph:

CAUTION! Magnets may come loose. Do not swallow or insert into any part of the body. If swallowed, seek immediate medical attention. Keep magnets away from pacemakers, televisions, computer monitors, and any type of electronic media.

That one paragraph. Translated 23 times!!! I don't even know why that strikes me as cool, especially because I found myself mentally trying to calculate a translation estimate. Good grief.

Anyway, yay for a great magnet! I love that I can hug him, and squeeze him and call him...Lobby.

It's all about the Roosevelts

Magnet #509 - The Roosevelts

Ok. Having magnetblogged two pretty thorough posts on Franklin and Eleanor already, I feel ok about using this pin magnet for this post.

Last night, as I was watching my regular slate of not all that great television, I had my TweetDeck up as usual. Lately, I've found myself mesmerized by the trending topic tag cloud on TwitScoop. Seriously. It's starting to scare me.

That's how I found out about the Getty being evac'd last week. It's how I found out about Kim Jong Il this week. It's how I found out about the creepy Observer from Fringe being at the All-Star Game last night.

So when #commercial popped up and I didn't have a clue why, I clicked on it, being the good adgirl that I am. From what I gathered, Taco Bell (whose colors I've been wrestling with all day at work) ran a TV spot during the MLB All-Star Game, featuring rappers in an SNL'ish parody called "It's all about the Roosevelts" (the dimes, versus the $100s).

It garnered mixed reactions, but either way, within the first two minutes of me being on TwitScoop, 33 new Tweets chirped, mostly about this ad (300 since I started this post). Trending topic tags popped up for #Roosevelts, #Taco, #Bell, #taco bell, etc.

It's insane. No, seriously. See?

But, even more, were the redirects and Tweets sending people to the TB YouTube channel for the ad itself, where the lyrics are readily accessible, and the link to the ringtone's included, not to mention where there are more than 300 comments, and more than 266k views (2,000 since I started this post). Mind you, I didn't do a pre- and post- comparison of views, but good grief, I bet it's an immediate spike.

Annnnnd, you've gotten me to Tweet about it, FB it, and now magnetblog it. Dannnnng.

Well played, Taco Bell, well played.

Who's your favorite princess?

Magnet #508 - Belle

Ok. Several reasons to use this magnet. It was a few years ago now that I saw Beauty and the Beast with a guy I met over the internet. No, no. Not like that.

He and I met through a messageboard that I'd just joined a few months earlier, and both he and I wanted to see to see superhot Jacob Young play Lumiere.

For those of you who don't know, superhot Jacob Young, played Lucky on General Hospital, and is currently playing the ever-damaged JR on All My Children. So, we went through Playbill.com, which has some really fantastic discounts if you sign up for their free membership. We had a great time that night, and see? I'm still alive to talk about it. Mind you, both of us are still on that messageboard.

It's from that same messageboard that I met the child who would break my heart, the daughter of one of our other friends from that board. We've all gotten together several times now - and when we first met, her daughter was like 5, and the most adorable little princess ever. Fearless and sweet. At eight, she's still fearless and sweet.

But yesterday, they took her to the Magic Kingdom. And (sniffle) she didn't find it magical. Or the happiest place on earth. In fact, she was bored. Bored? How do you get bored at Disneyworld? Nooooooo. But, while they rode the usual rides, she just wasn't feelin' it.

In fact, she didn't even care about the characters. You know, the same characters that not three years ago, my buddies and I were putting down our drinks to take pictures with (Aladdin)? The ones we were mugging with (Three Caballeros)? The ones we got felt up by (Buzz Lightyear)? Sigh.

Bored. Seriously hurts my heart. I was absolutely sure that she'd fall in love with Disneyworld. Sigh. Boy, they do grow up.

But, here's something that made me laugh. Yesterday at work, I was telling my coworker's 10-year-old daughter and her BFF that I was headed to see an advance screening of Harry Potter (yay me, for not falling asleep, which means it was pretty good!), and I had told them about the girl who was bored at Disney. They laughed, and I asked the two girls who their favorite princess were.

One girl, the tomboy, said, oh, I don't care about the princesses, joy.

The other, poked her thumb to her chest and said primly, and quite unapologetic:

ME.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program

Magnet #503 - Hollywood

Have ya'll ever seen the movie Mannequin?

That supercheesy but loveable 80s movie with superadorable Andrew McCarthy who plays a window dresser who falls in love with one of his mannequins, played by the young, bubbly Kim Cattrall, who comes alive due to a magical mystical Egyptian spell?

This is not that magnet.

It's just, every time I see it on my magnet board, all I hear in my head is Meshach Taylor falsetto sing-songing to Andrew, Hooollyywoood!! Oh, Hooollyywoood!! Here, it's at the :45-second mark. Watch...but then go run out and Netflix it. Seriously.

But, Andrew McCarthy worked with Teri Polo in the silly yet lovable Straight from the Heart tv movie. And Teri Polo gets you to Sports Night and The West Wing, where she worked with Joshua Malina.

And, Joshua Malina's one of the Twitterfeeds I follow. No, I don't have like a huge crush on him, but by far, he's one of the funniest Tweeters I've ever followed - not that I really follow all that many.

I've been following him for a month or two now - I've RT'd him and I've told others to follow him. And, he just sort of shows up in my Google Reader or TweetDeck - with his Tweets about his professional life, but also personal stuff, along with funny musings, jokes, or whatever. So, understandably, there's a sense of connection there - he's randomly become part of my everyday life, this guy who is supposed to stay in my little black box.

Here's what scares me. Actually seeing him in the little black box. The other night, I caught him on Valentine, and my first thought was, hey! It's Josh! I wonder what he's up to!

WHOA. Stop. The. Presses.

I don't know Joshua Malina from the Vin Diesel lookalike doorman around the corner! I shouldn't care what he's up to. He's the guy in the box!

Dudes, I can't really explain it, but it was certainly the single most uncomfortable feeling that night - it was creepy. And I realized that what I talked about a few months ago - about the fact that down the line, celebretweets will have some sort of backlash, I'm sure of it.

I shouldn't be able to interact with him or any other celebrity outside my tv. Dammit, get back in that little black TV box!

So, yeah, it's just scary. Not scary enough for me to stop following Mr. Malina (on Twitter), but enough for me to make sure I'm double-vigilant to maintain that fourth wall.

Mind you, I had a whole different magnetpost if I could have just gotten from Andrew to Alyssa Milano, whose Twitterfeed I also follow. But that was just way too hard. And I know my way there must be through Solarbabies and Jamie Gertz, but I just couldn't get there.

Now. Points if you ever saw Solarbabies.

Oxford Blues

Magnet #501 - Oxford University

Bought ths magnet during a daytrip out 2 Oxford a couple of years ago. We did rlly cool tour group through Evan Evans, & we had a blast wandering arnd the hallowed buildings & halls. I just think it's super pretty w/ all the difft college crests, vry Harry Potter-esque. According 2 their site, they have 38 independent colleges at Oxford (odd, b/c I count only 36 hre). They're independent, & have their own governing bodies, & R basically little colleges w/in the bigger context of the university.

I'm using it 4 2day's magnet b/c I realized something ystrday, in my unending battle w/ twttr. Lately, ive bn familiarizing myself w/ the evr-so-pretty TweetDeck (TweetDeck explained). & I ran across ths automatic TweetShrink fcn, which is wht I did 4 ths entire post.While it's economical, in terms of shrinking Tweets dn 2 140 characters, it essentially makes us all look lk illiterate fools. An abhorrence 2 all of R collective English teachers growing up.

An open letter 2 teachers of the coming generations: Please dnt stp teaching proper spelling & grammar. It pains & saddens me 2 realize that the kids who R coming up ths days R "de-learning" how 2 spell, & not learning proper grammar in the 1st place. &, it just makes me wonder if hallowed institutions such as Oxford will have 2 lower their education standards 2 admit the illiterate classes of the 20teens.Please dont giv up the ship! Xoxo,Stodgy old joy

Sleeping giant

Magnet #467 - Disney's Princess Aurora

So, I was thinking that Vicki was right yesterday, when she suggested having happy magnets this month. We'll see how long this Happy Magnets month lasts. Heh. I might not make it past this post.

I picked up this Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty magnet - and the other Disney Princesses - as a set from the $1 aisle at Target. Hello, jackpot! I'm only sorry I didn't pick up the Cars set, too! No worries, I'm sparing you a full Disney Princesses week...or rather, I'll be using them sparingly this month. Hahahaha.

Anyway, here's my happy (or, actually more grateful), thought of the day. Every once in a while, I hear or read something that just makes me damned happy that my parents came to America and had me.

All politics aside, you can't deny that we're damned lucky that we don't have a government that's censoring our communications.

Case in point. Today, I read this Britannica blogpost and I learned that my friend at Your Nose Is Quite Big living in China has had her access to all things social networking blocked.

Blocked. Seriously.

She can't Tweet. She can't YouTube. She can't blog on Blogger or Wordpress. She can't upload images to flickr. Dudes. She can't even use Hotmail!

Apparently, they've banned the entire nation (!!!!) from these social networks to help curb any talk about tomorrow's 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Well, I guess they don't call it the Great Firewall of China for nothing.

Still, how frustrating! And how much does it make you appreciate the (mostly) free reign we have here to speak our minds?

Ah, China. Napoleon once called you the sleeping giant, saying something like "Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world."

Huh. Uhhh, good morning, I guess.

Tweet, tweet, tweet-a-leet aleet

Magnet #443 - Tweety Bird

According to my parents, I was a big Tweety Bird fan when I was little. Which I guess explains a hazy memory of a battered old plastic kids mug from Six Flags at home in NC, and why my mom got me a vintage stuffed Tweety for me to keep here in NY.

And, why I picked up this little guy - though I can't remember where from - Warners? Six Flags? Eh, who knows.

But, I'm picking this one for today's magnet, because on the many occasions when I'm wrong about things I've soapboxed before, I like to admit it. Usually with a caveat or two, of course.

So, here's what I was wrong about. Twitter. Or rather Celebretweeting.

Exactly one month ago, I sat here on joy magnetism and reviled the Twitterverse. But, because people and the press can't stop talking about it, I've been delving back into it for the past month, to see if perhaps it's changed since last year.

And, it has, somewhat. I still don't like Tweeting my own statuses - I have two accounts on Facebook for that.

But, how awesome is it that I can just RSS feed Twitterfeeds right into my Google Reader, which means, I never have to visit the twitter.com site. Which is just happy-making.

And, next, in a complete 180 from a month ago, I've discovered that don't really want to follow people I actually know. It's more fun to follow celebrities and my two favorite critics.

Odd, right? Particularly since I'm the one who totally didn't "care about their break-ups or opinions." And, I still don't, for the most part. But, what I've found, are that there are a select few folks who are actually entertaining - the ones who are just naturally amusing. And, as long as they don't tell me that they're tweeting from the john, then they really are just providing another source of entertainment for me.

Also odd, I know, are my choices for celebrities to follow - because it's not like I'm really huge fans of theirs, really.

• Jon Favreau is there for the Iron Man tweets - there's something fun about knowing that Nick Fury's on set. Or, that they're working long into the night with two camera units.
• Joshua Malina, whose feed my sister found - added to my list because he's just funny. Just like...
• Nathan Fillion, even though sometimes he really is a little too obscure for me. And, I've even got
• Scott Clifton, this soap opera actor who started out on General Hospital - and even if I'm not watching any soaps at all right now, he's still seriously a funny kid, particularly as he gets used to living on the right coast, rather than the Target="_blank" wrong coast. And, finally I added
• David Tennant even though I know it's not him, but sometimes it's really funny to watch David Tennant stalking his own tv shoots. Heh.

It's a weird list, and I'm always looking for fun people to follow...but I can't follow everyone. For example, I betatested Jon Hamm, and looked at Matthew Perry and even Wil Wheaton, but none of them came to live on my Google Reader. (Part of the reason I'm selective about my Google Reader, because I can see every @reply people respond to, and dude, that's more annoying than the concept of Twitter itself.)

Mind you, I still worry about where all this celebretweeting will lead. I have this whole issue about soap stars allowing too much access through their personal appearances and charity events, where they're becoming too chummy with their fans. And then, they turn around and worry about their own privacy. Dude, you drank and broke bread with them - once that line's been crossed, it's hard to resurrect it. But, now that it's so easy for fans to reply to a celebretweet, that's kinda scary.

So, I wonder if the fact that celebs can interact so much with their fans through this (and Facebook and other SNS outlets) will cause people in real life to cross the line, down the line.

But for now, as I said, these guys are just providing another form of pure entertainment for me. And as long as it stays that way, then I can get with the celebretwitterverse.

eta:
Apropos to nothing...have ya'll ever noticed that Tweety Bird's feet are the size of Big Bird's feet? Weird!

Wherefore, human interaction?

Magnet #297 - Happy Bunny's It's all about me

Here's a question: Is anyone else feeling like the more socially networked you are, the less you actually talk to your unconnected friends in real life?

I feel like it's actually become harder to keep in touch with those folks who aren't reading your blog, your FaceBook, your MySpace, your Twitter, your LinkedIn, or your messageboard community. So, when someone decides to check in on your life, you're actually taken aback when they don't know what's going on with you.

It's odd, because while you're keeping in touch with your online contacts, it's the ones in your real life, those who aren't connected, or who just don't keep up, who are left behind.

Whose fault is it?

On the one hand, with a million SNS outlets acting as an RSS feed to the world, it's much easier to keep tabs on your friends, their whereabouts, what's going on in their lives and their thoughts on daily life and big issues. It gives you a feeling of being connected, of being involved - without really being involved. You can drop in on your friends, and still be able to maintain the cocoon of your life.

On the other hand, if you don't bother to keep up with any of the outlets, and you don't have time to keep in touch, when you do decide to check in on someone else, you find yourself completely out of the loop, without a clue as to what's going on in your friends' lives.

One could argue that pre-SNS, you'd pick up the phone and say hello, what's up? The phone calls would be fewer and far between - and would therefore lead to longer conversations to catch up. Nowadays, it's a quick status or posted item comment, or Wall-to-Wall, or iChat, before you move on with the rest of your day. It seems no one has time for phone calls any more - especially when it's easier to txt or ping someone.

But, if you haven't time for all of the above, where does that leave you? Does the connected friend have the right to be mad if that offline friend doesn't bother to check in on your life? Does the offline friend have the right to be mad if the connected friend doesn't feel like catching you up on everything that's going on? Should either friend make the more of an effort to stay in better contact with the other, in the way that they're accustomed to?

It's probably a bit of all of the above, I'm sure. But it's food for thought anyway.


eta:
How funny (and timely) is this. A friend of mine passed along a PEW Internet & American Life Project report on "The Future of the Internet." Among their key findings:

• the mobile device will be the primary connection tool globally by 2020 (really?);
• the division of personal and work and physical/VR will be erased for all those connected...and that it might have an impact on basic social relations (yep, already there, methinks).

And, yes, I totally downloaded the 138-page full report, just to see...

joy = fuddy-duddy. Yeah, I'll own it.

Magnet #139 - Friends are Angels
(Rant ahead, which will offend your young interactive sensibilities)

So, according to Merriam-Webster, the definition of friend is:

1 a: one attached to another by affection or esteem
b: acquaintance
2 a: one that is not hostile
b: one that is of the same nation, party, or group
3: one that favors or promotes something (as a charity)
4: a favored companion
5: capitalized : a member of a Christian sect that stresses Inner Light, rejects sacraments and an ordained ministry, and opposes war —called also Quaker

I'm of the mind that social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn, will soon make it necessary to add in

6: Persons interactively connected via social networking sites (whether they are real friends or acquaintances or not)

Since the advent of SNS, I've been torn over who my friends are online. There are those friends:

1. who you actually know and spend time with IRL (in real life)
2. who are former schoolmates from years back who have suddenly come back into my life (either I've gone searching for them, or they've found me)
3. who are past and present coworkers and colleagues
4. who are members of various groups you belong to
   
5. who are family members
6. who aren't really friends, they're just total randoms. (Well, no, actually, I'm one of those people who refuse random friending - I have to actually have some sort of interaction for you to see my profile. But, you get my point.)
   

What I don't understand are the folks who have a trillion friends, and openly admit that they don't know half of them. What is that about? Limited profile access or not, you're allowing random strangers into your life. You might as well walk up to people on the 2/3 train and say, "Hi, I'd like to be your friend. Ya wanna?"

Oh, I totally get the random friending, if you're a brand, a company, some sort of entity that wants to build a community (a band, author or other artists trying to get their name out there), or even a blogger with a high Technorati rating with some sort of influence in the blogosphere. But for individuals to follow this practice seems a little weird to me. For the individual, what's the point? So you can say I have a thousand friends? Is that how we're measuring popularity? Or how we're measuring personal relevancy on the web?

I mean, Mark Cuban hit 5,000 friends, and then was faced with how to tier his friends, or figure out another medium to get his message out there - because his website(s), blog and other accounts weren't enough. And, in his post, he goes through his tiers of friends - his real ones, the acquaintances, and the so-called Power Layer of those he's just friends with because they're good network connections. So that meant he (or, ok, his assistant) had to sift through those friends to figure out who stays/goes and at what level. Good grief. But, then! He's like all shocked that people wanted to treat him as a real friend - people checking in on him, sending FB emails, etc. I don't know why he was surprised - you accepted randoms, silly!

While I'm at it, SNS has completely obliterated the barriers of personal space. I mean, really, does your boss need to know that you went out over the weekend, got trashed and got laid and lived to regret it? Do we need to see the proof of that night? Do we need to know you're about to do it again this weekend? Does your high school crush need to know that you're still the same old dork you were years ago? Does your cousin need to know that your boyfriend loves you and thinks you're hot? Do we need to know what you dress like outside of the office or school?

One could argue that everyone has a vote in how much access they want to have to your life. We don't have to read the statuses, we don't have to click on the pictures, we don't have to watch the videos, we don't have to read all the Wall-to-Wall comments on the newsfeeds. And, yes, everyone has the choice to defriend friends, but man, how awkward is that? Plus, really. How will I know where the nearest happy hour is. In your neighborhood. Three states away.

Mind you, I'm not completely against social networking - I love being able to keep up with my actual RL friends via these sites, and in fact, I keep pushing more and more of them to join. SNS does have its benefits, I just worry that this Friend-frenzy is going to come at a long-term cost.


eta:
Just a quick eta, to say that I'm betting when my BFF gave me this magnet, she didn't anticipate me using it for this vitriolic post. If she were on FB, my status would say, "Joy apologizes for using Jan's magnet for today's vitriolic magnetpost."

But she's not. So now my status says, "Joy can now confirm Rear Dress, Row K, Seat 19 for Hamlet in December 08. AND Dress Circle, Row D, Seat 21 for Hamlet in January 09. Decisions, decisions."

Hell. Damn. Yeah.

And Robert? Yes. I'm the same damn dork you knew in high school. :-)