VIRTUAL CHIC

My older children and even some people at A2K have accounts at those sites. I do not do it because it is easier for me to talk about topics rather than about myself.

So . . . you don't know, huh?

Would I know how to be cool in any format??? You know me well enough by now, Setanta.

I was never cool, either . . . and wasted no effort at it . . . but i did think someone would know . . .

Pretty much the same things as in the brick-and-mortar world. If you look at the most popular folks on these sites they are usually popular (with some very notable exceptions I'll explain below) off the internet as well.

Here's an example from the most followed twitter users:

1) Ashton Kutcher
2) CNN
3) Britney Spears
4) TheEllenShow (Oprah just joined this month, she can outdo this if she wants)
5) Twitter (of course)
6) Obama
7) Jimmy Fallon
8) Shaq
9) John Mayer
10) Demi Moore

As you can see, the top ten most popular twitter users did not become popular on twitter itself.

Now as to the exceptions, there are a class of "online celebrities" who are famous just on the internet. These tend to fall into three main categories:

1) People who control a lot of traffic and used the traffic to establish a following. E.g. founders of famous sites, blogs who leverage their existing readership to become friends and fans.

2) People who work for companies as their customer representatives. E.g. Any Google employee can be popular online, they just have to start answering questions about Google and they'll have a legion of followers.

3) Genuinely clever and informative people. Some folk really do get by on the strength of their own contributions alone. They don't tend to be more popular than the above two categories, and the above two often are where they are because they too make useful contributions (not always) but some don't really self promote and have a loyal following.

Coolness is an emanation, an exudation of a personality and it shows online too..

Now, what constitutes coolness, that's a mystery.

i don't care too much about cool, face book for me is for real people, family, a few real life friends and a2kers

twitter is more to follow media folks, a couple of radio shows, and some of their friends, a few record labels and music sites, i rarely tweet (post), mostly follow

for the record, i follow none of the people on roberts list

The last time i followed somebody, it was this guy who had cut me off in traffic. He pulled over and threatened to beat the crap outta me . . . i don't follow people either.

I don't know either, though I'm getting closer to really checking out facebook. One of my key reasons is for placing photos, but then... I might prefer another site, or my own website, which is presently non existent.

So, I too await replies to your question.

Well, I don't know crap about this "cool," but I am eager to learn about it.

Ah, there was a good little article on the NYTimes homepage today about a woman in Belfast (from British Colombia) who puts pretty good recipes on twitter and now has a following - she's an amateur-but-good cook. I've also read in the sf chronicle that chefs/cookbook types are starting to twitter as a community.
Take 1 Recipe, Mince, Reduce, Serve

Setanta, It seems to me that A2K serves much the same function as the other social networking sites (although perhaps at a more intelligent level than most).

It also seems to me that you are one of the cool kids.

I don't know about that, E_Brown . . . but at any rate, i'm not gonna try to be cool. All i know about these sites is from looking over The Girl's shoulder while she plays around on Facebook. It appears to me that she mostly does what Dj described--uses the service to keep in touch with friends, and to play around.

harrumph

play around? I don't think so. I am all about seriousity.

I originally joined facebook to keep tabs on a colleague who travels a lot, and is constantly getting stuck in airports. Then I discovered that most of my bellydance pals are there. Then it moved on to keeping in touch with friends and family. The local dog community and environmental community are pretty active at facebook, so that's how I find out when the next guerilla gardening event (remember the Taylor Creek planting?), off-leash dog beach group meeting, Middle Eastern music event, dance classes, BoGoWo community activity is/are.

Cool? I don't think any of my gang is particularly cool. I adore 'em, but I'm not so sure they're cool. 'ceptin' for mebbe djjd.

I got roped into Facebook by my family (they kept on pointing out that I was the only person not on the site until I finally gave in).

My impression is that Facebook is an electronic version of a Christmas letter-- except one that lasts all year long.

"Bell dance pals"? I don't have any belly dance pals!

I bet your pictures are more interesting than mine... in fact I could even get to like Facebook if I had bellydance pals.

You'd have to be one of my friends to see those bellydancers' albums

Personally, I'm pretty sure that's why Set's <cough> reading <cough> over my shoulder.

Tres chic is great, but cool is a trendy word. My daughter got stalked on facebook. It can present problems. Did see BoGoWo there, but I just wanted to keep in touch.

It's Hell then, right?