Monday, August 4, 2014

More Uninformed Thoughts About Social Media

So... where were we...

Ah, right.  Social media and my complete lack of accurate information regarding it.

The rules are the same as Friday - I'll bring up a social media platform, give a brief account of what I think it is, then go away and do the research and see how far off I was. 

Today we're delving into the murkier depths, so I plan on being more wrong than usual.  Just FYI.

Let's start again with one that I actually belong to -


LinkedIn


Pre-Research (or 'presearch', a word I am totally coining right this very moment.  Let's see how long it takes before it turns up on Vampire Diaries.)-

This one is (from the little time I've spent on it) a big electronic cocktail party where every professional person you've ever met tries to get jobs for or from one another.  Basically it's Facebook where you're only allowed to talk about how awesome you are at your job. 

Also there is now apparently an 'endorse' feature, which sort of allows you to pinky swear to the world that 'so and so' is good at 'random skill'. 

Unfortunately they have immediately gone out of their way to make that function completely useless by making it some sort of popup button that asks you if you want to endorse so and so for whatever verb it suggests, thus rendering the recommendation completely unreliable.  I personally have been endorsed for my skills in Dutch Needlework, Playing the Baritone Ukelele and Ovulating.

Post-Research-

According to LinkIn, they are - 'a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking'

Also their logo looks a bit like a boss bending an employee over and preparing to vigorously roger them from behind.

OK, it doesn't really, unless you already have that image planted in your brain.  But from now on you're going to think of that every time you look at their logo.  You're welcome.

Reddit


Presearch-

I have a sort of vague idea that this has something to do with letting other people know what you're been reading.  But that may well be just because the name sounds like 'Read it' so that could be a load of hooey. 

Post-Research-

Hmmm.  Well according to Reddit, Reddit is 'The Front Page of the Internet', which seems a little cocky.  In practice what it appears to be is an online news source where the 'news' content is just submitted by any old person (as long as they're registered) and then voted 'up' or 'down' by the rest of the readership.

Because, I don't know about you, but I've often thought that the problem with reliable news sources is that they don't completely eliminate editors and fact checking and then rate the validity of the news based on audience popularity.

Don't we already have Fox for that?

On the other hand, it does currently have a link titled 'Man Locks Himself In Hot Car To Prove That Babies And Dogs Are Cowards'  So there's that.



Foursquare


Presearch - 

I genuinely have absolutely no idea what Foursquare does or is.  I'm not even 100% sure that it even exists and isn't just something I had a weird dream about.

Post-Research-

Why in God's name would I ever want to do that? 

Seriously?  

OK, so apparently you can become a mayor of a fictional concept-village by being the one who tells the most people where you're going out to eat.

If you're Tony Soprano, you'll probably want to pass on this one.



Pinterest


Presearch - 

A place to make your own personal collection of pictures of cats and gardening.

Post-Research- 

Wow.  That is a lot of pictures of food.

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