“Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s create another social media network where people can voice what they just did. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, Foursquare – they’re just not doing it for me anymore.”
The above thought probably came from the creators of Google Buzz, Google’s foray into the social media world. Instead of diving into the pro’s and con’s of Google’s new social media application like every other blog in the internet – let’s take a look at another question. Do we really need more places to “express-ourselves?” Does the internet need another outlet for people to let us know that they just ate a sandwich/just watched a tv show/just went to the bathroom?
I’m saying no. Though, I’m fairly certain me saying “we don’t need it” won’t stop Google from rolling it out, probably won’t stop it from being massively successful either. The end user here, you and I, don’t need another social media stream in our lives. Let’s look at Facebook, it became a fun place to share your latest internet gem or tell the word what you’re up to. Then Twitter started microblogging, so every time you wanted to share something, you had to post it to Facebook and Twitter. But alas, what if you left your computer for (dare I say) an evening out and went to a restaurant…well then it’s time to “check-in” with foursquare.
I get it, we’re all connected, we’re all sharing what we’re doing. We’re in touch with each other, and social media has really opened things up and made things easier for us to do so. Nielsen reports Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate.
We’re starting to spend a lot of time on social networks, and I guess one such question to ask is, are we spending more time sharing things online than we are discovering new things to share?
Please feel free to post this article to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and of course now, Google Buzz.