The Internet has brought together literally thousands of people for absolutely no good reason. I speak particularly of websites like Face Book, Twitter, Tagged and MySpace, just to name a few. Now don't get me wrong, many people have found these pages to their advantage, sharing pictures and blurbs with family and friends that they actually know.
I look over Face Book, yes, I'm guilty of having a page there and see people with hundreds of friends on their lists. To what purpose I ask myself, are they adding everyone under the sun that asks? I can see if there is a common interest buried in the reasoning but there should be a limit to what some people should add.
Is this some cry for help, a deep seated need to be popular due to some missed experience in high school? Turned down for the cheer leading squad, didn't get to play pro ball after high school or simply a "Look at me, look at me" type of thing going on. I am truly unsure as to why people feel the need to add anyone and I do mean ANYONE, to their personal pages.
Twitter is another of my favorites in that you can follow just about anyone you like without them ever knowing you exist. They will send out a brief message letting the world know they ran out of toilet paper and have to run to the store. If they happen to be famous...45 people will reply back that they have a spare roll for them and 100+ will re tweet it in case the rest of the world may have missed the post.
Since the advent of Face Book, you hear very little of MySpace and its millions of users. They have fallen prey to the dreaded "competition of websites" on the Internet. They of course, don't have Farmville, which obviously spelled death for the pioneer in social networking sites.
These websites seem to have found their niche in our society, bringing millions of people together that may have otherwise never met. But have they actually met yet? If the additions are simply names and pictures on a website, how much do you actually know about those that you add?
That picture of the hot girl in the low cut top could just as well be a 55 year old man who thinks it is funny as hell you are coming on to a pic he ripped off the net from his favorite porn site. The 15 year old boy on your daughters page could be a 35 year old registered sex offender. The anonymity of the Internet allows many people to toy with others for whatever reasons they may come up with.
A friendly reminder from your ever watchful neighborhood Lemur. Add those you know or at least, know of. You never know what you may be getting yourself into. Until next time...
About Me
- Wise Lemur
- Las Cruces, NM, United States
- I am an avid sci-fi/horror/fantasy fan along with being a Right To Eat Animals activist, target shooter and general know it all with a little information about a lot of subjects which makes me slightly dangerous.
Zynga, the social gamesmaker behind Farmville, has a revenue run-rate around $600 million, a source close to the company tells us. Another source confirms that Zynga is doing well over $1 million in revenue a day.
ReplyDeleteZynga makes its money getting users addicted to games such as Farmville and Fishville, and then selling them "virtual goods" that make those games easier.
The games are also made easier when a player can get another Facebook friend to sign up and build his or her own farm. This introduces an element of social pressure which makes the games more addictive and more viral.
SUNY Professor A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz puts it this way:
"The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness. We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people."