Should I Stay Or Should I Go -- A Social Networking Dilemma

[tinjaw]

Yesterday I started trying to update all of my social networking sites. It is proving to be quite a horrendous challenge. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't worth all the effort to do it.

But then a second dilemma occurs. Do I outright delete me accounts (on Facebook, MySpace, etc.) or do I let the rot away without the necessary gardening required to keep them current?

I doubt I will outright cancel my accounts because they might prove usefull some point in the future, but I can't see going to each one and delete my current information down the the bare minimum acceptable to each individual site.

I am sure that, for specific purposes, these sites have been extremely useful to many people. However, I don't see these things as very usefull to me in general.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you have anything that might convince me to spend the effort gardening for potentially hours each week? The obvious answer is for me to decide to only maintain the ones that I feel provide me value for my time spent with them. What should I do with the rest?

I'm curious to hear the discussion that could follow.

[Paul Keith]

I'm not really sure. Have you tried out Profilactic or at least FriendFeed?

[4wd]

I am sure that, for specific purposes, these sites have been extremely useful to many people. However, I don't see these things as very usefull to me in general.

You've already said it's not useful to you....so why bother with it?

Personally I can't imagine anything more boring than a Social Networking site.

Then again, I'm not a "look at me" kind of person.  I'm more your Repairman Jack type who shuns the limelight, (or indeed any light some would say ).

[Deozaan]

Update them all with a link to your latest updates/info on ONE website.

[Fred Nerd]

I agree with Deozaan, I have a Facebook which says "see my MySpace" and a Bebo which says the same, and if any of my friend are on another network, I'll register and say the same thing....

[40hz]

I agree with Deozaan, I have a Facebook which says "see my MySpace" and a Bebo which says the same, and if any of my friend are on another network, I'll register and say the same thing....

Inspired!

Hmmm.....now you've got me thinking....

[IainB]

I would agree with the comments above regarding "One ring to rule them all" (i.e., one "Social Network" site or your own website provides a base reference for the others). This is exactly what I ended up doing quite a while back. now. Some years back, I started using RealContacts and then LinkedIn, because they were relevant to business (not social) networking.

The thing is, social networks take time, are of questionable use, and maintaining your profile and persona on them uses up your cognitive surplus. I therefore did not follow all the invitations of friends/acquaintances to join Plaxo, Where-are-you-now, Facebook, etc. I recently joined Facebook (after it had sorted its gaffs in data security out) and set up a personal profile there, which linked to my professional profile on LinkedIn.

I later joined Plaxo, leaving my profile empty except for links to my  personal profile on Facebook and my professional profile on LinkedIn.
This seems to work for me, but it still takes time and cognitive surplus to maintain these things - tasks which I did not "have to do" before.

[Armando]

This is a great idea. Thanks.

[app103]

There are a lot of people in the same boat as you and they are abandoning profiles on various social sites all over the place.

One thing you can do is set up your Google Profile (if you have a gmail account) and list links to all the social network profiles you are going to keep/stay active on, and use that profile as your home page link on the ones you are going to let rot.

That will give more options to the ones that still want to follow you and stay in touch. rather than only giving them one choice and forcing them to sign up for yet another account themselves, they can pick one in which they are already an active member.

If anyone leaves a MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn link in their abandoned profile, it's not likely I would follow them to any of those, since I either don't have an account or I have abandoned my account there already. But if they left a Google Profile link and listed a link on a site I actively use, I would add them as a contact there.

If you are not crazy about having a Google Profile, then at least make a web page with the links somewhere safe, and use that.