
Naked Emperors: where are all the connected people? - MaysonL
http://notes.kateva.org/2011/03/naked-emperors-where-are-all-connected.html
======
bitboxer
Someone is bashing the facebook numbers and _just_ discovered Linkedin?! Lol.

BUT I think the numbers tend to be correct. A lot of my non tech friends here
in germany are now on facebook. I only know 3 guys that are not on it. And
they are not on it because of privacy concerns. And I even saw parents
organizing their school board meetings through it.

Very scary thought to see that Facebook got so huge, but you can't say the
numbers are wrong. At least not as wrong as the poster tries to make them.

~~~
rbarooah
Right, but it costs nothing to join FaceBook.

Measuring their success by counting membership numbers is the same as
measuring the success of a shampoo brand by counting the free samples they've
given away.

~~~
d2zo
Perhaps, but you don't turn around and give the shampoo producer intimate
details of your life. Instead, you probably forget that you have the sample
and end up throwing it out 6 months later.

They're different businesses, I'm not sure that you're comparing apples to
apples.

~~~
rbarooah
We don't know how many people sign up because someone said it was cool or
invited them and then forget that they have a Facebook account.

It serves Facebook to publicize a giant number to make them appear unbeatable,
but the numbers that count aren't about number of users - they are about
_usage_.

I think it's a reasonable analogy.

------
lowprofile
There is also huge "fatigue" in my social network. Posting frequency drops
with time, except for those who have put up status rotators.

~~~
w1ntermute
> except for those who have put up status rotators.

Wow, I didn't even know that these existed. Do people just have a set of
statuses that they randomly cycle between?

------
rospaya
Anecdotal evidence.

I live in a fairly low tech central/eastern European country, but I know a lot
of people that use Facebook and IM, most of my colleagues use Linkedin, but
only some use Twitter. If an event isn't on Facebook it could be invisible.

SMS is common for a decade now.

It depends on a lot of things, exactly why this blog post has little sense.

------
el_chapitan
I also live in Minneapolis, and I see a very different thing in the social
media realm than the original author. It seems to me that when someone gets a
smartphone, the first thing they do is install the facebook app and then start
using facebook every moment they get a chance (even on blackberries from
work).

The only time I see people really using location based services is when
they're looking for directions (Garmin already made the inroads there).
Personally, I use a lot of location based services, but I've also been working
in the field for awhile.

------
ams6110
I'm in the author's demographic. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, and none of
my friends are either, for the most part.

------
karolisd
According to Men's Health, Minneapolis is the 4th most socially networked city
in the US: [http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/social-networking-
cities...](http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/social-networking-
cities?cm_mmc=MagURL-_-Apr2011-_-metrogrades-_-socialcities)

------
rdouble
Maybe the author is old. Every kid in Minneapolis is on Facebook and sends
8000 text messages per month.

------
joeguilmette
I talk to my grandmother via facebook.

~~~
jaysonelliot
The plural of anecdote is not "data."

~~~
joeguilmette
Correct, however did you read the article?

Here's a tl;dr: none of my friends use Facebook.

------
georgieporgie
I'm guessing you could make the same argument with a lot of technology,
fashion, etc. I think the only edge Minneapolis is known to be on is that of
food-on-a-stick.

~~~
jaysonelliot
That's a pretty elitist view of the Midwest.

The first popular web browser (Mosaic) came from the Midwest, you know.

~~~
georgieporgie
The exception proves the rule? Note, by the way, that I said Minneapolis. I
admit that the entirety of the Midwest houses some great schools and centers
of social development, but I don't think that's representative of the norm.

I would genuinely like to know if my impression of Minneapolis is incorrect.
In what way is its technology adoption on par with that of San Francisco or
New York? Is it at the leading edge of anything?

~~~
rdouble
Minneapolis actually has better bandwidth than NYC, and the iPhone actually
works there, too.

