Social Networking... (Part 1)...

So we're all on facebook, most of us are on twitter, a lot of us used and lost patience with Myspace.


Most of us have heard of bebo, Flickr, mylife, last.fm, etc, etc, etc.


There are literally 1000s of these types of sites all over the internet.


But why are they there?


What purpose do they serve?


Why do so many millions of people use them every minute of every hour of every day ?


Is it the need to feel "loved" and/or "wanted" ? 


Or is it boredom ?


Do you really know your 3000ish "friends" on facebook ?


Has the whole world become lazy or is it a lot easier to communicate via a social network than it is to actually phone somebody and have a conversation?


There are a lot of questions here, but sadly not a lot of answers. I suggest the answers are very different for very many different people.


A lot of people think I'm addicted to Facebook, this may be true as I do post a lot on there but, I could and have lived without it. Is it my feeling of self importance that I tell people I'm on a train journey to Bristol or is it the boredom of being on the train that leads me to hopefully waste 20 seconds posting an update to Facebook?


The answer lays somewhere in the middle of the 2...


Twitter, I find is a great source of news and information, more so than any newspaper than I could read. I "follow" very many people from presenters on Talksport to Sun Journos, to Daily Mail journos to BBC news presenters to Sky sports presenters to Andrew Neil, with "real" people dotted around too. 


Between all these people I tend to find I get all the news I need and all within 140 characters!!! 


How did we survive 20 years ago for example, before the birth of most of these types of sites? What did we do before the internet, mobile phones, never mind a "smart" phone with mobile internet !?!


This is going to take a little bit of thought I think.


Perhaps I may have some answers in Part 2, then again perhaps I may have more questions...


Who knows ?


Perhaps I'll ask one of my followers/friends...




To be continued...

My First Blog !!

This seemed like a great idea at the time. 


Over the last few weeks I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog.


"I Know", I thought to myself, I'll share my general views and opinions on everything and anything that pops into my head, what could be simpler? 


After all I always have something to say about most subjects and I value the right to opinions even if they may seem like total gibberish, (mine included, I suppose...)

I've read some blogs that seem like they were very easy to write, it seems to me with some of them that you find a subject and off you go, waffle, waffle, waffle. Don't worry about substance, style, grammar or even if the blogs relates to the subject title. Simple.


I'll be great at that!


All I need to do is find a subject that I know something about and write my thoughts and views on it. Add a little humour and some "facts" from Wiki to "prove" my point and off we'll go.


Right. So what subject should I pick?


Should I talk about sport and my love for football, rugby, boxing, etc? 


Nah, loads of blogs about those over the web, I'd need to put a different spin on it to stand out. Let's walk before we run shall we.


What about my views on Religion?


I think I'll save those for another day...


Politics. Everybody has a view on politics, that's an easy topic. If Vince Cable is able to be an MP, I'm pretty sure I could post a blog about politics.


That is perhaps a little too easy...


How about my views on Facebook, Twitter and Social networking as a whole?


That's it, that's the blog subject that is going to see me burst onto the internet as the next best thing in the blogging world...




Now...






My mind has gone blank, where do I start ?




Perhaps this blog writing isn't so easy after all...