Social Networking

Welcome to the 2nd totally boring post in a row all about putting stuff online. Now I'd like to discuss social networking.

It's a great idea. MySpace is a wonderful idea executed in a horrible, frustrating, ugly and ridiculous way, but I've been hearing good things about Facebook and decided to give that one a shot this weekend. I'm too old for most of these sites and most of my friends don't use them, so I couldn't really get to "into it" with Facebook, but whatever. That's not the point of this entry.

These social networks all seem to be about joining friends, posting positive and friendly comments, and networking around to my friends' friends' friends. I get it. But shouldn't there be an option under MySpace to, rather than simply unfriend someone, "enemy" them? That is, if I really hate someone I should be able to click a link that says so. Then on my MySpace page I could have 'Friends' and 'Enemies'.

Afterall, isn't the saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? So it should work just as well in networking as the standard "friend" and give people a sounding board as to why they're holding a grudge, able to post it in a public forum, etc. And maybe it'd be nice to give these users a way to communicate without having to "friend" someone who maybe they're not getting along with at that particular second.

Anyway, if I ran MySpace I'd make it "a place for friends and enemies". Feel free to take that idea and run with it, Tom.