UberNoggin

Since the boom of Myspace (which I won’t even hyperlink because if you don’t know the URL you must belong in a Geico commercial) it seems that big media sees social networking websites and the panacea for all the woes of traditional monologic media. Is that new product failing? Build a social network for it! Underselling your latest car model? Build a social network for it.

Enough already.

These folks are missing the point. Case in point: the “network” (and I use that term with reservations) for the ABC TV show “Greek.” The show starts this summer but in a few weeks ABC Family will release a social networking site for fans. On the site, fans can create profiles that serve to match them with the character who they are most like. You can even use your profile to rush for a fictional sorority/fraternity featured in the show. But is this really social networking?

If you use your profile, not to be unique, but to be just like a character, then are you really connecting with other people? I’m contemplating the ramifications of this and the difference between this kind of profile and one in which you create an “idealized” version of yourself which most folks do. Afterall, we only list the personality traits we think will be attractive. You seldom see anyone admit to biting their fingernails or snoring on a Match.com profile.

What do you think? Can we create “real” connections if we’re not being our “real” selves? And is there such a thing as an online social network that is too narrow? Too specialized?

1. Chris Hambly says:

   May 7, 2007 at 7:15 pm

   Hi Sarah.

   I think we need transparency in all our social networking these days. I think people just see right through it otherwise.

   The new social networks used to present a product without warts, is just old school marketing wrapped up in a new box. That’s what we’ve always done.

   Like the domain name, very rhetorical!