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How much of this comes from just pure boredom and/or an addiction to social networking? From boredom can come great ideas for a business or personal analysis.

How much of this comes from just pure boredom and/or an addiction to social networking? From boredom can come great ideas for a business or personal analysis. Two of the great tech titans in this industry in Gates and Jobs did not have this addiction and limited web access to their children. They did not grow up with the web. What is the effect of a lack of boredom? Does forward progress suffer as a result? >Maybe we establish relationships that couldn't have been established otherwise, because of circumstances, distance, opportunity, whatever? I wonder if that's true for most. I'd suspect that most of the youth that uses Facebook would not know where to start in finding interesting posts. It may be what people want but it may not be what they need.

shadowfiend 15y ago
I'm not saying that's not possible. But there's a pronounced tendency in human nature to assume that because we don't like something no one does, or because something isn't good for us it isn't good for anyone (or, in reverse, because something is good for us it must be good for everyone). I think it's important to take a step back when we make pronouncements like this and consider whether we're actually right in thinking that or not. And I suspect we have no idea what kinds of crazy things youth are doing with Facebook. Crazy meaning, useful but in a way that isn't immediately apparent to us. The thing about networking is, its utility goes up with time. The guy you chilled with at some party yesterday may be useless to you today or tomorrow or next year, but maybe in five years you'll issue a general request on facebook to see if anyone has a couch you can crash on in Chicago, and he'll volunteer. This is the kind of interaction that's honestly a bit new, and we're still getting comfortable with it. Is it what we need? Maybe not, but then again it's stupendously difficult to figure out what it is that we “need”—indeed, every person's definition varies.

shadowfiend 15y ago

I'm not saying that's not possible. But there's a pronounced tendency in human nature to assume that because we don't like something no one does, or because something isn't good for us it isn't good for anyone (or, in reverse, because something is good for us it must be good for everyone). I think it's important to take a step back when we make pronouncements like this and consider whether we're actually right in thinking that or not. And I suspect we have no idea what kinds of crazy things youth are doing with Facebook. Crazy meaning, useful but in a way that isn't immediately apparent to us. The thing about networking is, its utility goes up with time. The guy you chilled with at some party yesterday may be useless to you today or tomorrow or next year, but maybe in five years you'll issue a general request on facebook to see if anyone has a couch you can crash on in Chicago, and he'll volunteer. This is the kind of interaction that's honestly a bit new, and we're still getting comfortable with it. Is it what we need? Maybe not, but then again it's stupendously difficult to figure out what it is that we “need”—indeed, every person's definition varies.