It's My Life!

It’s My Life (Really)
Posted by: Rod on the Blog
Ready To ZooLoo? |

Originally posted at: BLOG.ZooLoo.com



Well, with props to my Jersey brethren, Jon Bon Jovi, whose track of the same name inspired the title of this blog… two recent articles about Facebook caused me to ask if it really is my life any longer in today’s social networking world?

A Fortune cover story was entitled, “How Facebook is Taking Over our Lives” and implied that if we really wanted to communicate with friends, share photos or even look for work, that particular venue would become the default option. Shortly after I got over that little treatise on world (social) domination, I stumbled upon (no pun intended) a piece in CNET news about “Giving up Facebook for Lent and Keeping Your Friends.” Oh please, spare me…

Okay, so I get the point that social networking has emerged as a hot topic and that the media loves to latch on to certain elements of the phenomenon and quickly label them as trends that define the space and with that perhaps even define our lives. But for me, the emergence of the vast array of social networking sites has simply provided many very cool choices that I want to be able to control myself. Seeing any one of them as “taking over my life” or leading to a presumed social faux pas if I abandon one of these tools for any period of time, seems ludicrous and at odds with the real values emerging in the social media spaces. I actually use a number of social networking services for everything from keeping in touch with friends, to seeing what’s culturally important in other parts of the world to providing an outlet for my own sarcastic, while not universally appreciated, sarcastic sense of humor. “What the heck does he mean in today’s “status”?

Once I get past the kind of human need for interaction and the “fun quotient” inherent in social networking, I still struggle a bit with the same concerns and challenges in the virtual online world that I do in the real world of existing by walking around. For example, I’m all about simplicity and efficiency but not at the sacrifice of variety. I don’t want to be limited in my options. I’m also not going to exchange safety, security, ownership of my content or privacy but I do want easy and consistent access to those things that make up my calendar of everyday events; news and information, entertainment, shopping both basic and discretionary as well as socialization with family, friends and co-workers.

As the market evolves, I’m excited about the possibilities to leverage a range of capabilities in a way that I can control, not have them control me. The potential is fantastic. Let’s just make sure that as our online lives become even more capable of satisfying more and more of our daily agendas, we can control and customize that experience to be unique, private and safe for each of us. As Bon Jovi proclaimed, “I just want to live while I’m alive, ’cause it’s my life…”

Tags: Bon Jovi, CNET, facebook, facebook applications, Facebook friends, Fortune, it's my life, Lent, New Jersey, Ready To ZooLoo?, Social Media, social networking, zooloo, zooloo.com