I decided after picking up another The New York Times newspaper, I would stick with cellphones and the different types of services that are out there waiting to be utilized. This week, I found an article titled: Social Networking Move to the Cellphone. Because the Library 2.0 book for class briefly overviews this type of information, I thought it would be fitting for this internet social networking blog.
The article began by stating that there are currently so many “mobile social networking” upstarts that Britain’s New Media Age magazine was able to name ten companies for the “ones to watch” list. These “mobile social networking” upstarts such as GyPSii, Bliin, MyGamma and Itsmy.com all see the world’s 3.3 billion cellphone users as their market. This number far surpasses internet use. The advantage of utilizing a mobile social network with a cellphone is that it is in real-time due to global positioning satellites and other related technologies.
According to an Informa Telecoms report, 50 million people or 2.3% of all cellphone users already use their cellphones for social networking. This includes chat services and multimedia sharing. Their prediction indicates that 12.5% of the users will be social networking via their cellphones within five years.
Currently, the majority of the social networks mentioned above are located outside of the United States. These companies mainly seek to capitalize on location information, and are able to show users where friends and other members are in real-time. Just to add my two cents worth here, do I really need or care to know exactly where my friends and other members are right now? No! For goodness sakes, let people breathe once and awhile. Do your friends and other members need to know this second you are driving down the interstate either picking your nose or stuffing your face with a Big Mac? I honestly don’t think so. However, I guess I could send out a warning to those unfaithful spouses. Your mate will no longer have to pay good money for a detective to catch you in the act. Ok, so back to the article.
GyPSii shows users where their friends are in real-time by displaying a map of their environs dotted with photos, videos and information about other members. It is predicted they will have more members in one year than Facebook had in three. (Yippee!)
Bliin allows users to update and post their whereabouts every fifteen seconds. Good idea if someone is truly in a harmful situation. However, they could be dead in fifteen seconds.
MyGamma is based in Singapore and draws most of its users from developing Asian countries where the mobile phone is the only source of internet. According to a BuzzCity study, member’s sessions typically last 30 minutes to an hour.
Itsmy.com currently has one million registered members. The article did not mention what type of a social network it is; however, it has released its product in several foreign languages.
AOL, Yahoo and Nokia do not believe their users will invite this mobile networking. Therefore, they have initiatives to create discrete communities out of their cellphone users. (Whatever that is suppose to mean) Their users use cellphones much differently, viewing mobile as an extension of the online site.
I realize all of this social networking is VERY important to the up-and-coming generation. However, what happened to the great saying “distance makes the heart grow fonder?” There was a time when a husband left his family for months to find work or do business and no one would hear from him the entire time he was gone. During the time the husband was gone, the family had to grow stronger and more independent. Floundering around in the deep end had to be overcome quickly or there would have been a dead family the husband came back to. To me, I do not see where the younger generation is learning the independency and willingness to learn what is needed to survive through this ever growing “mobile social networking.” I guess I am still too old fashioned.
The information came from The New York Times newspaper Business Day section C. March 6, 2008.
Talk to you next week.
1 comment:
Oh, I got a good laugh over the idea of tracking nose picking or Big Mac stuffing. Things have changed a lot as you point out. I can remember my grandmother, who grew up on Prince Edward Island in Canada, telling me about standing at the kitchen window with her mother watching a stranger walk up the road. All of sudden, her mother yelled out, "Why it's Sam, home from the Klondike!" It was the return of a half-brother she had never met. He'd been gone for years with barely a word... or text message.
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