Two Point Oh No He Didn’t!

Today Mostly Lisa wrote about her use of the “big three” web 2.0 sites — Facebook, Twitter, and Pownce — and it got me thinking.

I’ve been involved with a few 2.0’s for quite a long, long time. I joined Facebook (feel free to poke me) back in late 2004, when Florida State was first added to their allowed networks. I had managed to avoid the MySpace craze, and the Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, etc, etc but fell hard for Facebook. There was something about it’s exclusivity and the fact that everyone I knew joined at the same moment, and then friends at other schools joined as they were added.

After Facebook I joined some other 2.0 sites with waning interest. What this really means is that I’ve got barely updated, hardly used profiles all over the internet including Digg, where I have a total of nine dugg stories in two and a half years; Flickr, which is used as a place to store a few private pictures and some others that won’t upload to my website for whatever reason; and YouTube, where I have videos I’ve created for the youth group. I have also been an on-again-off-again user of Last.fm and LinkedIn, but my interested in each of those really depends on how bored I am. I tend to sign up for various sites when I hear about them (see Skydeck) and then forget about them altogether.

When the Twitter craze began about a year ago I ignored it. I figured the same purpose was accomplished through my Facebook status. I didn’t understand why anyone other then my friends would want to know what I was doing (sometimes I don’t think my friends want to know either). It all seemed a bit strange to me. I resonate more with Tycho’s take on Twitter then some of the other internet personalities who swear by it.

Perhaps my take on Twitter is really my take on the “social web” in general and explains my basic lack of using it completely, save Facebook. It seems like a great tool, something that will really be a great thing to sign up for and use, and then just never becomes worth my time. So, instead of making connections and being “social” I’ve left fractured pieces of my identity all over the internet. I’m sure a psychologist could make some deep insight on my personality based on that statement.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the concept of web start-ups and think a lot of the ideas are pretty cool, which is why I usually jump on board initially. Maybe I’m lazy. I don’t know. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll suddenly “get” Twitter, or I’ll find a need to heavily use Flickr or the other social sites. I’m not really sure if that will actually happen, but who’s to say it won’t. If I do, I’ll be sure to integrate it here.