Why do internet geeks hate social networking sites?

[Ns1]

...they spend hours upon hours of everyday on forums, gathering large numbers of ultimately useless posts


Damnit, I got threadjacked

 

[shocksyde]

Originally posted by: Ns1
...they spend hours upon hours of everyday on forums, gathering large numbers of ultimately useless posts

b/c they don't have any friends

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Because social networking sites are MMORPGs where the point is to gather more "friends" than anyone else.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Because social networking sites are MMORPGs where the point is to gather more "friends" than anyone else.

and posts = xp and everytime you reach a milestone you ding, until you get capped out at lifer?

 

[nageov3t]

do they? I'd consider just about any forum to be a social networking site, even stuff like /. or fark if you read the boards.

with something like myspace, I think a lot of the hate is generated by the helltastic layouts/color schemes many pages seem to use and how seizure induring many of them can be.

 

[randay]

because its full of fakers.

 

[Newbian]

Because most of the social sites are just a crappy website for most and they already have their own actual website.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Because social networking sites are MMORPGs where the point is to gather more "friends" than anyone else.

and posts = xp and everytime you reach a milestone you ding, until you get capped out at lifer?

Yup, and Elite is like Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies before they changed the game entirely. Once you get past 10,000 posts, the post count is like the gold after you've bought all the best stuff money can buy and maxed out your elixer and potion counts. It's just a number that nobody gives a rats ass about.

 

[alkemyst]

just another option where they will be shot down.

 

[skim milk]

because it's superficial and fake

trying to make oneself look cool

 

[BassBomb]

Because its cool to hate what is popular

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Because its cool to hate what is popular

This. Nerds are probably stereotypically adverse to popularity contests which is what many of these sites turn out to be, but not always. Many folks have accounts on these sites for purposes other than showing off their myspace angles trying to feel better about themselves.

Oh well. I'm a nerd. I have facebook and myspace. I use them pretty much to keep in contact with old friends from school and relatives. Hate it or not, doesn't bother me one bit.

 

[BudAshes]

people come here for discussion/flame wars with relatively anonymity. People go to myspace, facebook etc to pretend they care about each other so that other people will pretend to care about them.

 

[KB]

I have thought that same thing as only one of the folks in my IT group are on the social networking sites. I do believe it is because geeks know the difference between friends you see every week and MySpace/facebook friends you never ever see but you add anyway because they inflate your internet ego.

I guess geeks also like to keep in touch with their friends via old modes of communication like the phone, email and in-person instead of blogs and tweets. They prefer a summarized, filtered look at the world using news aggregators like reddit, digg and slashdot instead of the stream-of-conscious crap that is social networking.

Bulletin boards like AT serve a purpose - part news aggregator/blog; hopefully, with more news than blog.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: KB
Bulletin boards like AT serve a purpose - part news aggregator/blog; hopefully, with more news than blog.

I come here for the lulz. Especially L&R :laugh: There's more lulz in L&R than there are on facebook and myspace put together

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: BudAshes
people come here for discussion/flame wars with relatively anonymity. People go to myspace, facebook etc to pretend they care about each other so that other people will pretend to care about them.

Yeah, pretty much this. Facebook made me realize how annoying most of my friends really are. I also do not particularly like having all of my info up there for all to see. I barely ever go on to the damn thing anyway, I just have it because certain people use it exclusively for getting in touch or setting up get-togethers and whatnot.

KT

 

[AreaCode707]

I think that on a fundamental level social networking sites are resented because anybody with a computer and half a brain can join in the internet community. Before social networking was made easy you kind of had to earn your way into it; know a little web design at least, or something similar. The geeks both owned and ruled the net. The more regular folks come on, now THINKING that they're equal to the geeks, the more geeks become part of the minority population of the web, and their "street cred" now counts for nothing.

To sum, when you buy something and then it gets handed out for free, you feel gypped unless you can make yourself believe that yours was more special in some way and thus was worth the price you paid.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: skim milk
because it's superficial and fake

trying to make oneself look cool

That's what people with no friends and no luck with the ladies say.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: KB
Bulletin boards like AT serve a purpose - part news aggregator/blog; hopefully, with more news than blog.

Social networking doesn't? I keep in touch with people that I don't particular care (or need) to talk to everyday/week, but let them know I'm still alive so when/if I need something, it's not just like "this guy, who has made no attempt to keep in touch with me, now needs something from me."

 

[racolvin]

Personally I don't do the social networking sites for two reasons:

1) I don't wish to be found and "poked" by people at random. If I haven't spoken to you in 20yrs then its a good bet I have no desire to talk to you.
2) It's all "hey look at me and all the cool things I do/say!". Total narcissism.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: racolvin
1) I don't wish to be found and "poked" by people at random. If I haven't spoken to

This is where facebook is great imho: a poke/message/comment here and there keeps you "in the loop".

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: racolvin
1) I don't wish to be found and "poked" by people at random.

Wtf... that's not what you said yesterday night. :|

 

[Capt Caveman]

Don't see the problem. It's basically a mini-forum for you and your friends.

 

[K1052]

It's not that I hate them, I just don't care.

Usually I get people who rag on me because I don't use those sites.

 

[funkymatt]

Originally posted by: Ns1
"this guy, who has made no attempt to keep in touch with me, now needs something from me."

This is the exact reason I don't keep in touch with the majority of people I went to school with. Still talk to a couple friends, but i hung out with some douchey people.