Lifestream.fm vs. Adobe Wave

Need to know what your friends are doing every second of every day? Then get a social and media aggregator. This technology allows you to know when your friend posts a new update in facebook or twitter, posts a picture on flickr or twitxr, publishes a new blog post, bookmarks a website, favorites a video and a variety of other actions that will make you wonder how your friends have so much time on their hands or make your head explode from information overload by feeding you TMI. Lifestream.fm is a SaaS that makes all of this inane information available in a stream when you log in to your lifestream. Adobe Wave sends you desktop notifications of all these activities once you download the software and tell it what sites you want to follow. With Lifestream.fm or Adobe Wave you can fall even further into the time wasting hole of social media. While I normally find social media apps and whatnot helpful and interesting, there is a limit and these apps cross it.

Social Networking: Generalization vs. Specification

Today I am going to talk about online social networks. Most people have heard of the big ones like Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc but there are tons of smaller ones that are out there. One in particular that I am fond of is Ning. This online platform lets you create your own social network and many have done just that. There are Ning networks for job seekers, pet lovers, book lovers, movie enthusiasts, people that love exercising, writers, social philanthropists and all types of career gurus. A couple that I belong to are TalentBar, Recruiter Earth, Recruiting Blogs and 20 Something Bloggers. Like most social networks, ning allows you to customize your page within your ning community. You can have a personalized background, banner and/or text/background colors. Another great feature is being able to manage all of your Ning networks by going to ning.com. Ning is a great place for people to socialize with others that share common interests. Is there a Ning community for your specific interest? If not, create one!

For those who still question the useful of social media sites

Social media allows you to connect with others but these sites are about more than letting you know what your friend is having for breakfast. They give us a forum to share knowledge with each other and unlike the past it is knowledge that you want. You seek out this knowledge by subscribing to someone who posts what you want to know about and if you don't like it you can easily unsubscribe anytime. Following people has increased my world view, introduced me to new topics, allowed me to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world, keep abreast of current news, the benefits go on and on. So if you want to keep learning subscribe to others today, who knows what you'll find.