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from http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/11/the_social_graph_is_neither/ http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/11/the_social_graph_is_neither/ > Right now the social networkin

from http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/11/the_social_graph_is_neither/ http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/11/the_social_graph_is_neither/ > Right now the social networking sites occupy a similar position to CompuServe, Prodigy, or AOL in the mid 90's. At that time each company was trying to figure out how to become a mass-market gateway to the Internet. Looking back now, their early attempts look ridiculous and doomed to failure, for we have seen the Web, and we have tasted of the blogroll and the lolcat and found that they were good. > But at the time no one knew what it would feel like to have a big global network. We were all waiting for the Information Superhighway to arrive in our TV set, and meanwhile these big sites were trying to design an online experience from the ground up. Thank God we left ourselves the freedom to blunder into the series of fortuitous decisions that gave us the Web. > My hope is that whatever replaces Facebook and Google+ will look equally inevitable, and that our kids will think we were complete rubes for ever having thrown a sheep or clicked a +1 button. It's just a matter of waiting things out, and leaving ourselves enough freedom to find some interesting, organic, and human ways to bring our social lives online.

Swizec 8y ago
> some interesting, organic, and human ways to bring our social lives online. Let me introduce you to The Private Group Chat where 90% of online social activity happens between people under 30. It’s rrally quite fascinating. It’s everything Google+ wanted to be, but totally organic, apread over dozens of chat apps and services, and without the big brother oversight.
- evrydayhustling 8y ago
  This is a really good point and something an over-30 like yours truly would have an easy time missing even as it happened around us (my most meaningful groups are now distributed over WhatsApp, Slack, and good 'ol email). Happen to know any sources quantifying this phenomenon?
  - icelancer 8y ago
    > Happen to know any sources quantifying this phenomenon? Perhaps the best answer you can get here is "no." That's exactly what the privacy advocates would want to hear, yet the phenomenon is very real. I'm in my mid-30s but almost all of my social networking with younger colleagues/friends is done via ephemeral group chats (Snapchat) and Signal. I keep a business Twitter and personal Facebook like everyone else, but any substantial communication is moved offline to encrypted and less-trackable methods. The younger crowd figured out how to use the encryption technologies we've been wondering how everyone will adopt all while we've been missing it. Are they perfect implementations? No. But a lot better than what standard communication looked like years ago.
    - PavlovsCat 8y ago
      It has nothing on the free spirited forums "we" had 20 years ago. How would random people find out about and get into private, encrypted groups? Not at all. It's not the same thing in any shape or form. If anything, a generation gave up even wanting to have a public space and a spirit of tolerance, and retreated into purely private rooms, moderated by private tyrants. Ancient Greeks had a word for people who restrict themselves to the private, and aren't interested in public offices and affairs, which today is an insult -- while what it used to describe is viewed as desirable, something people brag about. Many people gave up, they aren't even part of the discussion anymore. They cannot fathom what is under discussion, because they never had it. It's not that I'm not aware, it's that I weighed it, and found it too light.

Swizec 8y ago

> some interesting, organic, and human ways to bring our social lives online. Let me introduce you to The Private Group Chat where 90% of online social activity happens between people under 30. It’s rrally quite fascinating. It’s everything Google+ wanted to be, but totally organic, apread over dozens of chat apps and services, and without the big brother oversight.

evrydayhustling 8y ago
This is a really good point and something an over-30 like yours truly would have an easy time missing even as it happened around us (my most meaningful groups are now distributed over WhatsApp, Slack, and good 'ol email). Happen to know any sources quantifying this phenomenon?
- icelancer 8y ago
  > Happen to know any sources quantifying this phenomenon? Perhaps the best answer you can get here is "no." That's exactly what the privacy advocates would want to hear, yet the phenomenon is very real. I'm in my mid-30s but almost all of my social networking with younger colleagues/friends is done via ephemeral group chats (Snapchat) and Signal. I keep a business Twitter and personal Facebook like everyone else, but any substantial communication is moved offline to encrypted and less-trackable methods. The younger crowd figured out how to use the encryption technologies we've been wondering how everyone will adopt all while we've been missing it. Are they perfect implementations? No. But a lot better than what standard communication looked like years ago.
  - PavlovsCat 8y ago
    It has nothing on the free spirited forums "we" had 20 years ago. How would random people find out about and get into private, encrypted groups? Not at all. It's not the same thing in any shape or form. If anything, a generation gave up even wanting to have a public space and a spirit of tolerance, and retreated into purely private rooms, moderated by private tyrants. Ancient Greeks had a word for people who restrict themselves to the private, and aren't interested in public offices and affairs, which today is an insult -- while what it used to describe is viewed as desirable, something people brag about. Many people gave up, they aren't even part of the discussion anymore. They cannot fathom what is under discussion, because they never had it. It's not that I'm not aware, it's that I weighed it, and found it too light.