Social Networking: Its Nothing New.

It seems no matter where you go on the Internet, you hear about social networking. But can someone tell me what is new? Social networking is all about use of pre-existing technology. The Internet. The invention of Alexander Graham Bell; the telephone - it has not been reborn as a mobile device. It has evolved into a mobile device; mankind has evolved it and continues to evolve it.

Yet the principle remains the same.

SMS text messaging is new across the telephone, some might think. There was a novel invention, though, which Thomas Edison was known for falling asleep while working on: the telegraph. And let us not forget the words of Nikola Tesla who wrote:

When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

New? Only for those unfamiliar with the history of science and innovation.

Thinks such as Facebook and LinkedIn - even MySpace.com - do not offer anything that the internet didn't offer otherwise. Each 'social networking tool' only consolidated what was already there - sort of like Disney taking things from the public domain and creating reinvented works. No, Disney did not write the original story of Cinderella.

Lee Hopkins wrote Social Networks on mobiles will dwarf Facebook. Let me clue everyone in: The last report from UNCTAD already demonstrated that. Right now, more people have mobile phones than have internet access. There's the clue.

A quote wrongly attributed to Petronius Arbiter and of uncertain origin, comes to mind:

We trained very hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn in this life that we tend to meet any situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

So what is new? People are making money off of consolidating what already exists - even to the extent where they make money off the content of others, without recompense. That cannot be a future. It makes no sense. TANSTAAFL. Sure, you can be the coolest person on Facebook, but should you be the one making the most money for someone else without recompense? Hello? McFly?

So, let's get this straight. You have email. You have the ability to get your own website. You can place advertising on your website, create affiliate links to stuff you recommend and even sell some of your own stuff. You have your own mobile phone, your own telephone... and you can send messages to your own website instead of someone else's. So - what's the incentive? Eyeballs? OK.

Now here's the funny thing. I run Your2ndPlace.com - a multiple blogger site. But instead of me getting paid everything, each writer has their own advertising next to their own content. Magic! It can be done! Sure, there aren't any millionaires that I know of blogging there, but hey - they write it, its their content, they should make the money on it. And being a group blog, there is the benefit of many eyes while rewarding contributors.

So tell me again what is new in 'social networking'? Screwing the people who contribute? Not new. We call those taxes, and in cases of a lot of social networking it seems to be a stupid tax. They think that you're stupid, so they tax you not by taking money out of your pocket, but refusing to put anything in your pocket.

Meanwhile, as Pierre Levy wrote in Collective Intelligence, the future is atomized. The trouble is getting past the 'Social Networking Gurus' to get to the next level. Stop passing the Kool Aid, folks. All we need are some open standards, the software to support them, and we're off. Next clue: We've already begun that. What do you think RSS is?

Make your own Kool Aid. Give it your own flavor. Despite how little others may think of you, you are worth more.