

Ask HN: Does everything have to be social? - matmann2001

The big buzzword these days is "social".  Every major company seems to be working on technologies that allow people to do more and more things together.  Social networking, social gaming, social browsing, social TV, social music libraries. I will not deny the benefits these services provide, but to me, "social" is just another way of saying "public".<p>Perhaps I'm more introverted than the average consumer, but when I get home after a long day of work or perhaps a weekend night spent with friends, I like to unplug from society.<p>What are your thoughts about this?  Are we heading toward a society where no one is ever truly alone?
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jeffchuber
Yeah - I generally interpret Social as crowdsourced for a lot of services, or
at least having the option of having friends involved.

The problem with so many online services is that they ASSUME by default that
the value is only in the social elements, and fundamentally that people only
have valuable interactions when they are social creatures. That is certainly
majorly faulted.

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orenmazor
I choose to interpret the useful version of 'social' as 'socially curated'.

news is great, but news that has contributions from my friends is better. same
with tv, food, workout habits, events, etc.

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matmann2001
It's helpful yes, but I'm not sure everyone would agree that it's better.

For example, many people wish to form their own opinions about the news they
read, before being told what everyone else thinks about it.

