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blah, blah, blah – Facebook this and Myspace that. You Friendfeed and I Twitter. Sweet. What is this whole social networking movement and what does it mean in terms of how we interact socially? Is this whole social networking phenomenon just a trendy fad or is it here to stay? However mundane and time wasting these services may be, history appears to suggest that social networking services are here to stay, and not because they’re revolutionary social inventions like the telephone or email. No, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are not as groundbreaking as that, but their space is maturing to the point where we can begin to realistically define what sort of legacy they will leave behind.

It’s true, social networking companies are creating remarkable products and generating lots of media buzz, investment dollars and most importantly – user eyeballs. But is there enough long term value here to sustain a business and revenue model over the long haul? Ah, the wondrous, capitalistic paradigm of businesses making money. How novel, how cliche. Think for a second of the possibilities of Facebook being utilized in communist Russia by the government as a big brother tool – have fun updating your profile! Add friends, add friends! We command you! But seriously, I pose the question to all of you that happen upon my humble weblog – What real value add do you get out of the social networking services that you use?

I’ve been recently asking the questions to some of my friends – through the phone and email, the original social networking tool on the internet (and also through Twitter). The first and most obvious answer that I got is re-connecting with friends present and past – building a rolodex of sorts. Almost all of my friends I’ve spoken with tell me that more than anything else, Facebook enables them to reach out to friends from their past, re-connect and keep up to date on what folks are up to without all the fuss of making 50 phone calls and asking 100 questions – (Maria you’re absolutely right). It’s a rolodex on steroids, and it’s a pain in the ass to keep up with. In fact if you have enough friends on Facebook or another service, you most certainly will need a ‘friend activity aggregator’, so you use Friendfeed too, just to manage Facebook or whatever.

So with this being said, we can begin to see some of where Facebook and MySpace’s value sits. Although I already have everyone’s phone number and most people’s contact into in my phone, the social tools that these networks bring to the table make them valuable assets. After all, don’t you want to see the drunk pictures of your high school acquaintance Dave spilling his drink on some girl? I do, let me tell you.

Personally, I wish everyone would just Twitter. It’s just so god damn simple, and there is no centralized profile that you have to change if you’re reading a new book or break up with your girlfriend. I also know that for most of us, this is something that doesn’t realistically happen on a regular basis. And no, I do not work for Twitter, I just think their tool is so easy to use and parred down – It’s like a sort of huge open answering machine that enables anyone to leave a message or check their messages at anytime.

To this day, the phone is the most efficient, and revolutionary social tool that has been invented by a human. The ability to pick up a device and hear someone else’s voice on the other end is an invaluable tool and always will be. Why? Because it is so @#$^*%# simple. For me, Twitter is the closest that Web 2.0 social networking services have gotten to something this revolutionary, and its pure simplicity is the reason.