My apologies for using such a strong word but it is what it is. I remember back in the day when things used to be private. We shared only so much information and with only so many people. Today everything we do, from drinking a cup of coffee to taking a shit is either being updated on Facebook or sent as a tweet. We are social animals. We like to connect and interact. And different social networking channels have made is much easier for us than what it was a couple years ago.

It’s hard to imagine a time when there was no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube, Wordpress and many other platforms that we find hard to live without. And it’s unbelievable to know than when we entered the 21st century, these services weren’t there. Yet, after 10 short years here we are, a society that can’t live without socializing with the unknown. I am quite active on many different platforms. My first choice is Facebook, second Twitter and all other platforms come after those two. My social participation mostly consists of links to articles and then at times my personal stuff. You know the kind where we all share what we did today, what we are going to do tomorrow and what we have plans for the next year and so on and on.

We are a society of attention whores. These different channels give us a chance to gain that 15 second fame which wasn’t possible a few years ago, few as in 5-7 years ago. When a home made video on YouTube hits a million views, when an article lands on the frontpage of digg, when your tweets are retweeted many times, we are asking for attention. Some use that attention solely for work and some use it to network and the worst are those that use it to fuel their ego.

The only thing we had yet to share publicly on the web could be our purchases. Well, that will soon be taken care of as Blippy comes out of private beta. All in all, although as harsh as it may sound, we have become a society of attention whores. When I tweet and update my Facebook status, I am asking for attention. When you update your blog, you are asking for attention. It’s hard to label ourselves as that but in a increasingly social web, that’s who we all are – attention whores. We have all become marketers, seeking attention of those that are willing to give and in some case going out of our way to seek from those who are not as willing.

2010 will be an interesting year to watch. It will be fun to see how we will turn out by the end of the year. Hopefully, we don’t sell ourselves so hard that by the end of the year the social web turns into traditional media, you know the one that we ignore. Let’s stay on track folks and let’s make sure while trying to garner this attention we don’t forget our roots, the roots that remind us to give first and not just ask.

I’ll admit that I am an attention whore. If I wasn’t I wouldn’t be on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, Scribd or anywhere else. What about you? Are you saying you are not?

Tags: Rant // 1 Comment »