The Hype Is Not The Territory

Grant McCracken points to a PC Magazine column by Lance Ulanov confidently predicting the imminent demise of Twitter, MySpace, Second Life and other forms of social networking.  Comparing MySpace pages to ugly websites of the mid-90s (he's certainly got THAT right), Ulanov says:

These social networks are—or were—media darlings, and all are part of a new wave of Internet hyperbole. Though millions of dollars may not have been invested and lost on these enterprises, untold hours of airtime, pages of text, and human effort have been and continue to be wasted on each of them. Each site approaches the social-networking paradigm differently, yet they all share a common thread: overreaching ambition and impossible expectations. They live, to an extent, inside the second Internet bubble.

Ever think about hype? Why does some hype catch on and some not?

Seems to me that some hype catches on because lots of people experience something essentially true in the hype.

Take Twitter, for example. What is Twitter?

A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!

That's it. People from all over the world posting 140 characters or less letting others know what they're doing RIGHT NOW.

So, at first glance, Twitter seems slightly insane. But, lots of people are doing it. Question is, why? Ulanov's answer:

Twitter is popular now because the Web cognoscenti are using it. This bunch of eggheads prides itself on irony and witticism.

But, if you watch the Twitter flow on its homepage for a few minutes it sure doesn't look like the ironic witty postings Web egghead cognoscenti. It looks like regular people answering the question, "What are you doing...right now?"

But, why?

I think that's the part that Ulanov doesn't get. Fact is, there is something deeply compelling about social-networking...not the specific software or approaches we're seeing now, as Grant points out, but about the desire to be in contact with other people.

Fact is, we're insatiably curious about one another. About people we know and about people we don't. We read stories about one another, we watch films about one another, we look at one another's photos on Flickr pages (who ever thought THAT would be interesting), we watch videos other people make, we can't get enough "reality TV," and on and on and on.

Whether or not MySpace, Twitter, Facebook or the like succeeds, this fundamental human desire will continue to drive us to the "next big thing" in the world of being in contact with one another. Since the beginning of time, the capacity for increased communication has inexorably grown due to this desire. With that capacity now exploding globally...cell phones...think, cell phones...we're going to continue to create new ways of  using that capacity. And, some of those ways are going to be amazing.

Focusing on social-networking hype is like looking at the map while driving through Yosemite: you're so busy trying to figure out where you are that you're missing the amazing things going on all around you.

Comments

[Phil Davis]

I have a MySpace page and Facebook page. Maybe it's my age, but I don't use them much, and I don't really see much communication on them, just a race to accumulate the most friends. I use it as a back-up contact device for people I know through YouTube, which provides so much more communication than the other social sites. The others don't compare.

I know several people who use Stickam, but the time lag between when you speak and others hear it is too much for me. Maybe if they get that fixed I'll go there too.