Now that the MySpace Mentality has taken over Do Social Networks Need an Overhaul?

29 Aug
2010


Twitter has become the new Facebook which is the old MySpace. It bears say­ing it. As a blog­ger who five days a week writes about social media it’s hard to miss. Especially if you are some­one who tries to avoid what I call the MySpace men­tal­ity.

MySpace Mentality ( mī spayss men tállətee ) : Does it really need a defini­ton?

It’s the rea­son why peo­ple who were on MySpace flocked to Facebook. Then why those same peo­ple who flocked to Facebook turned to Twitter. It is the accu­mu­la­tion of the inter­nets under­belly in one place. It is the men­tal­ity that dom­i­nates col­lege dorms and the Jersey Shore.

For some­one like myself who chooses the fam­ily friendly over the obscene it has made social net­work­ing a chal­lenge. Is it time for social media to make an over­haul? Is there a place for pro­fes­sion­als to inter­act and net­work with­out the muck and mire that now per­me­ates social net­works?

It has always been said that sex sales. This the­ory is tried and proven. It does. Now that social media is part of daily life it no longer needs to be sold. We bought into it. We want to be a part of it. Some of us have even invested in it by writ­ing about it. What hap­pens though when we begin to feel like we no longer fit into it?

Although, a good num­ber of social media users have no qualms about what other users choose to share via their per­sonal spaces on social net­works, some do. It’s not that they want to infringe on another per­sons right to express them­selves in any man­ner that they want it’s just that they want a place for them­selves. A sort of Festivus — for the rest of us.

In the cre­ators of social net­works infi­nite wis­dom no one deter­mined that there may be a core group of users who wanted the abil­ity to fil­ter out unde­sir­able infor­ma­tion. While some appli­ca­tions designed to be used with social net­works like Tweetdeck do have a fil­ter, it is no fix­all.

While social net­works have great oppor­tu­ni­ties for all who want to pro­mote what they do and inter­act with poten­tial clients, cus­tomers, and employ­ers on a per­sonal level it has also become a place in which many mix busi­ness with plea­sure.

Isn’t there time for an alter­na­tive for peo­ple who just want to talk busi­ness on a social net­work in an envi­ron­ment free of the MySpace men­tal­ity?

What is your view? Do you think it is time for social net­works to get an over­hal? If so, what?


Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody

Toya Bryant has written 193 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

  • http://www.kristenacthemaniac.blogspot.com Theresa

    I do think it is time for an over­haul. But a tech­no­log­i­cal over­haul seems phys­i­cally impos­si­ble and a gov­ern­ing over­haul could be dis­as­ter­ous. The change has to come from us, the peo­ple. Time to look at the Man in the Mirror, and stop me before I break out into song with, I Believe the Children Are Our Future.…

    But seri­ously, our chil­dren ARE the next gen­er­a­tion of tech­nol­ogy users. They will drive the next cul­ture wave. This is an excel­lent time to teach them respon­si­ble use of media, Many of the young adults of today were teenagers who dove head first into an ocean of tech­nol­ogy with lit­tle or no parental super­vi­sion. Media advance­ment was pro­gress­ing so rapidly, many par­ents had no idea what the heck was going on.

    One of the best ways to teach respect­ful and respon­si­ble behav­ior (both inside and out­side of media) is to spend time with your kids. Lots and lots of time.

    Know where your chil­dren are. Check up on them, even if you trust them com­pletely. They’ll act irri­tated, because they are sup­posed to, since they’re kids, but deep down inside, in a place they won’t find until they are in their thir­ties, they’ll be thank­ful and grate­ful, that some­one cared about them that much.

    Another way is to model respon­si­ble behav­ior. What is our per­sonal impact on social media? Who are we pro­mot­ing? How much of life are we expe­ri­enc­ing out­side of media?

    Yet another way is to encour­age teach­ers to include Media Literacy within their les­son plans. Knowledge of the intri­ca­cies of media empow­ers a per­son to nav­i­gate media more effec­tively. Do we have any idea how many tech­nol­ogy advances are made purely for mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing pur­poses?

    CommonSenseMedia has lots of media lit­er­acy tools for par­ents, kids, and teach­ers.

    Ok, I’m done.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    You make excel­lent points Theresa. Our chil­dren are the future of social media and we need to teach them that there is a right and a wrong way to use it. Right now every­thing today is geared toward the wrong way. The obscene and per­verse seem to per­me­ate social media even when young peo­ple are involved. So where does it end?

    Children still imi­tate their par­ents in this tech­no­log­i­cal age so we need to set great exam­ples on putting stan­dards on what is and isn’t appro­pri­ate use of social media. With such things like sex­ting and pic shar­ing among teens becom­ing the new norm we are enabling the future of mature adults to believe that this is nor­mal.

    Spending time with your chil­dren is essen­tial. If they are given the proper amount of atten­tion from us then they won’t default hope­fully on improper use of social media.

  • Anonymous

    Im not sure if a com­plete over haul can occur. The type of user social media attracts are usu­ally of the younger gen­er­a­tion who has less restraint in their lan­guage and actions. They can lack matu­rity, but then there’s the atten­tion whore who will do any­thing to be seen or heard. I believe these are some of the prob­lems in social media. The atten­tion whores mess it up for every­one else who come to meet new peo­ple and learn new things. Another awe­some look at social media from. I really like your style, its not bor­ing or dry, obvi­ous com­men­tary.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    MD I think you said it cor­rectly it is a lack of matu­rity. We even see it from so called celebri­ties. It’s very unfor­tu­nate because it is ruin­ing social net­works for those of us who would pre­fer not to have to see what they say.

    Thank you so much for the com­pli­ment too! :)

  • http://www.success-ladder.com/ the Success Ladder

    This is a very inter­est­ing point of view. Your blog is refresh­ing, but I wish one could find more con­tent, though. I am look­ing for­ward to read­ing more from you. Keep up the good work. thanks.



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