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Laurel Papworth on 9am

18 April 2008 in Internet, Media, Notes by Stilgherrian | 5 comments

Social networks guru Laurel Papworth was on Channel Ten’s 9am with David and Kim this week. Have a look, ‘cos it’s interesting to see how out of touch mainstream media professionals are in all of this. I write about that in my comment to Laurel’s post.

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18 April 2008 at 11:26 pm

Alex Willemyns

I think both the interviewees overstate the influence of MyFace. Their comments and analogies may have been relevant four years ago, but now…

It seems that social media commentators are always a few steps behind what’s actually happening. We’re at a point now where it’s not long before having a MyFace account will be comical.

At least Laurel is just ‘Social Media’, and felxible, unlike ‘Miss Tease’ who… really, I can’t quite grasp the embarrassment she’ll feel in five years if that video is still floating around the internet.

I already laugh when I see those adults on TV who talk themselves up because they have MyFace, when for everyone else it’s not really that socially acceptable to talk about that in real life. It’s really already approaching that level of embarrassment.

It took most adults about four more years than everyone else to froth up over MyFace. Perhaps 2011 might be when they catch up with everyone who were doing, in 2003 and 04, what they’re doing now.

MyFace is like renting. Most adults are the equivalent of early-20 somethings online. When they grow up, they’ll want to buy rather than just rent — i.e. have their own domain, own content control and own content style.

(I still rent occasionally, but like most, including yourself, I’ve bought too. Just a modest one-bedroom place for now, though…)

Thoughts, Stil? (P.S I wish I wrote as much on my tumblelog as I do commenting your blog.)

19 April 2008 at 12:35 pm

Stilgherrian

@Alex Willemyns: Would you like me to edit your comment, replacing all mentions of MyFace with MySpace? ;) Or did you mean to conflate MySpace with Facebook? It’s too early in my weekend, and I can’t spot satire, intelligence or wit yet.

What probably wasn’t disclosed, this being commercial TV, is that MySpace paid for Laurel and Kerry to be in Melbourne as part of their PR activities. Hence they get the profile.

I think you’re right about those two sites drifting towards embarrassment, particularly MySpace. Some reports have been coming through that traffic to Facebook has already flattened out or is even declining. Numbers of users up, yes, but those who joined a while back are spending much less time there — myself included.

I’ll explore the rent/buy analogy to having your own domain later, because there’s a lot in that — particularly because this week I’ve been talking to a few people about how owning real estate is not a priority for me. The analogy holds plenty of value, though. I cringe when I see a business using a Hotmail or even BigPond address. Maybe another analogy — and one closer to “growing up” — is moving out of the parental home and creating one’s own identity?

Meanwhile, on the timing of all this have a look at Gartner’s Hype Cycle. MySpace, I reckon, is currently plunging into the trough of disillusionment — at least for us.

19 April 2008 at 8:13 pm

Alex Willemyns

Yeah, I was using MyFace to cover MySpace and Facebook at the same time.

And the fact that MySpace paid for them to go down there changes everything. I’d still be embarassed to be put on TV as a ‘Myspace fanatic’ or whatever they called Kerry.

I cringe when I see businesses with @BigPond.com as well. Especially when it’d cost them $10 and a Google Apps account to make themselves look thousands of dollars more professional.

I don’t think the Hype Circle applies here, or at least, it won’t pick up as much as that graph implies. I’m sure it’ll still be around for a long time though, if Friendster is anything to go by. But like Friendster, people who use it will be a laughing stock.

It’s silly really. I’m not going to be dictated by when it’s uncool to still use MySpace, but if it wasn’t for interstate moving plans when I finish high school this year, I already wouldn’t have any use for it. Who knows when I’ll delete. The only bad thing for MySpace and News Corp. is that it’s when, not if.

19 April 2008 at 9:47 pm

Laurel Papworth

Oh I have laurelpapworth.com but it’s a pain in the ass to maintain. Much prefer my Facebook and blogspot blog :) I think we are moving away from domain names towards “little bits everywhere” — as DNW and Fang call Web 3.0.

20 April 2008 at 11:10 am

Stilgherrian

@Alex Willemyns: As the Wikipedia article says, “The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.” My gut feeling about MySpace is that it’ll be merged into something else at the corporate level — Murdoch will sell it on, meanwhile having harvested a massive database of people’s interests and connections to feed into other projects.

I think you are influenced to see MySpace as cool/uncool more than you realise. We all are. The Gartner diagrams record what happens, they don’t force the decisions.

(Gartner are also full of shit sometimes. Very expensive shit.)

You, like all of us, are influenced by the constant streams of messages from our friends and elsewhere, as well as our own assessment. What is “uncool”, after all, but an assessment that liking something will make you look less of a thought leader amongst your peers?

@Laurel Papworth: As the old saying goes, if it’s a pain in the arse then you must be doing it wrong. ;) You could always point laurelpapworth.com to your Blogspot account…

I sometimes think the “little pieces everywhere” approach only reflects a rapidly-evolving marketplace. 30 years from now, plus or minus 20 years, natural selection will have whittled it down to a few clear ways of doing things and people will choose from amongst them.

A century ago there were 200 automobile manufacturers in the US. Today there are what? None? ;)