nicholas carr. sorry to be all meta all the time, but i can’t help it. the above quote is about twitter, but by using the catchall of ‘social networking,’ the quote is just not true. narcissism is defined as “inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love.” maybe this is true of twitter (and it really is; and i’m sorry, no one is that pithy. brevity is the soul of wit, but i think the implication in that phrase is that it’s not something you can accomplish several times a day), but not generally of social networks. twitter really isn’t a social network though. as the website says, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” for me personally, i don’t care. or rather, i don’t care enough to join twitter just so i can find out what my friends are doing and also because i don’t want to constantly be answering that question.
i’ve already said my piece about facebook, but one thing it’s decidedly not is bound by narcissism. most obviously, the design is ugly. if people were on facebook out of some display of excessive self-love, wouldn’t design be central? and wouldn’t the emphasis be on the individual facebook user and not the constant chatter happening on facebook?
