For the last few years I’ve been a slave to various social networking sites. It all started with Myspace and has continued apace with Facebook and now Twitter. My favourite is still Facebook which is a remarkable tool for wasting time as well as engaging with ones fellow man. Somebody once suggested to me that it was replacing real social interaction. By which they meant, going down the pub and making friends. This is poppycock of course. People still go down the pub and talk to their chums but they may also share the experience with their online friends by status updates delivered and sent through their mobile phone.
This is not a narrowing of social life but an expanding. You can tell hundreds of people about your day rather than only one person at a time. There are also the joys of gossip, debating the news and just making silly jokes. It’s fun and can be enjoyed anywhere with a mobile phone signal or Wi-Fi access.
I’m just stopping myself there. When did this blog turn into a tech journal? I used to be a comedy writer and now I seem to have drifted into the strange world of journalism and crap journalism at that. No self respecting journalist would still be writing about social networking sites.
Anyway I can convincingly turn this back to comedy, I’m sure I can…here goes.
One of the other interesting things about Facebook is that you can make friends with people you admire. As somebody loosely involved with the heady world of comedy I have many friends online, who are comedians. This allows me to tell them instantly when I’ve enjoyed their radio show, television program or live gig. In fact in the case of Twitter you can tell them while they’re on stage, as comedians are increasingly integrating the tweets of followers into their shows.
STOP!
This is no good it’s still just a tech column with a mere mention of comedy. I’m going to cut it short now. Please come back tomorrow for some proper comedy writing.
Yes I know that Facebook is considered by many as old hat, but it still works. Unlike MySpace which has de-evolved into a meat market for self promoters OK yes I do still have a MySpace account and yes the podcast has one too.
Look I’m merely saying that Facebook is my favourite. What do you mean: that’s because I only have seven Twitter followers? Yes it is true that my following is small but that’s because I’ve not promoted it, in my blog. Yes you can have the username, thank you for asking.
My Twitter username is: martinwolfenden.
Now kindly desist in this cacophony of chastisements, there is a hot bath and houseboy awaiting my attentions.
Good evening.
