The Space is Always Greener

I don’t spend much time on the major social networks any more and if you look at my mighty little twitter widget on my sidebar it’s been more than 80 days (as of 4/26) since I tweeted. These last 6-12 months have been torture witnessing the mass absorption of social media but it wasn’t the absorption as much as the showcasing that became a little annoying – “hey look at me I are being social media!” – it became the web’s bluetooth ear piece.

Like I said before it’s been a couple of years now since I decided to stop being “social” in an attempt to hook on to whatever is going to be next. I spend much more time now working with open source platforms like WordPress and I’ve been exploring hyperlocal and niche networks – what will be the mom and pop networks of what was large social media. Large networks break off into smaller concentrated inter-micro-networks. I really believe that the social networks will in a sense implode if they haven’t already. Like any hot spot or popular gathering place, at some point it reaches critical mass. When everyone plus their mother starts showing up to your once exclusive spot it becomes too mainstream even for the mainstream, so layers begin to peel off.

I don’t use the major networks but I do observe how they are moving along. I login every so often to see what’s up and study the environment. It’s been in the past couple of months that I’ve noticed one very funny thing:

Myspace is cleaning up their space while Facebook is junking up theirs. Very funny. Once they were going in opposite directions and now it looks like they are turning back the other way. I think this is a sign that we are at a crossing point like what happens when the ghostbusters cross beams, well I think we’re seeing the result with these two guys. I noticed more and more that the myspace is committing to leaner layouts and design while the facebook has been adding more and more customization and distraction to their trademark minimal layout. Farmville? Pages? Junk.

It was supposed to be simple way connecting to family and friends. Pretty soon every single last of the rifraf will have “graduated” from myspace and will grace the pages of facebook that by then will have music and customization features just like the old myspace. And while they’re criss-crossing each other into a plateau – the new whatever will be here, whether it’s personal “blog” profiles, family networks, local networks or personal lifestream webpages, we are there – just need a snazzy name and a cute verb for it like social media and tweet.