Social Networking: Facebook and Twitter

Sentinel Online, now loading the Geekcast Radio

Network of podcasts. The Geekcast Radio Network

presents Social Networking With your hosts, Steve

Megatron Phillips, Mike TFG1 Blanchard, Kevin

Optimus Solo Thompson, And make the birdman die.

God damn it! If you don't just start in one of

the pauses, you will never start. If you give

us more than a five second pause, we will make

another joke. I shot the sheriff! Shut up! Assholes,

I swear to God. Yes. Hello and welcome to what

the fuck is that? Sorry, that was my song screwdriver.

Sorry. That's like the fan came to life. Watch

out! Turn your goddamn Doctor Who dildo off.

Jesus Christ. It just went off on my desk. That's

why it's a Doctor Who dildo. Anyway, they probably

have those actually. It just went off on my desk.

Sounds so hot, doesn't it? Hello and welcome

to geek cast radio episode 29 This will be part

two of two of the social networking series that

we are doing I am one of your hosti of Joe and

Mike and joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello.

Hello Mike the bitch man Dodd. Hello Yeah, that's

all he's gonna be able to say this episode ladies

and gentlemen and Kevin optimists solo Thompson

stop laughing And this time around in this series

we're going to be talking about the popularity

and usage of Actually, this almost could have

been a GCR and wars episode but Facebook and

Twitter So because we are recording these episodes

in the same fucking night and Stephen and Mike

really have nothing else to say Kevin what the

hell have you been up to? Let's see, a whole

lot of nothing. No, being a judge and helping

out with our Behind the Voice Actors voice acting

contest and adding content there and doing the

telecast and stuff with GeekCast Radio and trying

to survive. Yes, yes that's right. I guess in

this part for the intro just Christ I don't even

know where I was going with that Thanks a lot

Mike and your fake farts Real one that was me

having a dirt moment We didn't actually give

you a chance in the last episode. Why don't you?

Mike has been doing a lot of charity work. Why

don't you tell us about your charity work, Mike?

Yes, I'm actually doing work for the Toronto

Sick Kids Hospital via charity called Extra Life.

And what that does, it donates money to Children's

Miracle Network Hospitals across the world. And

I've chosen Toronto Sick Kids as a hospital that

I will be donating to. So right now, if you check

out BirdmanGivesBack .com, I'm collecting donations

for a charity video game marathon that I will

be doing on October 15th beginning at 9 a .m.

till October 16th at 9 a .m. 24 hours of video

games and I intend to broadcast the entire event

as my internet connection holds out. So if you

want to find out more, if you want to watch the

stream you can check out live stream dot com

slash birdman dot but you can also find more

information like I said at birdman gives back

dot com. So 24 hours of video game. So is this

basically just you sitting in your office playing

all different kinds of video games for 24 hours

straight and not doing anything else? Or are

you gonna be able to get up and take bathroom?

I mean, it's like, well, I'm not pissing my pants.

So I'm definitely gonna get up next to your chair.

Well, if you time it, if you're playing the right

video game and you just time it for some type

of cut scene or something, you'll have time to

go to the bathroom. I will just play games that

only have loading screens. You'll be playing

Nintendo games. Exactly. Yeah, so I'm going to

be doing all that. I'm going to do a good chunk

of emulation on my computer so people can actually

see what I'm playing. I've raised over $1 ,000

so far. I'm hoping to raise another $500 before

the event starts. I've had something like 50

people donate to me. So I'm hoping to keep that

number up and going. I've contacted a bunch of

big internet people to help me out. So we'll

wait and see what happens as we come into the

final bits of this as, like I said, this all

happens on October. It's going to be an interesting

24 hours for me. The interesting part is going

to be the last few hours. Oh, it's going to be

me so tired just cursing at the game. I'm doing

it for the kids. Die, you rat. You have to play

like the easiest game in the world at the end

and see if you still suck at it. Tetris. I can't

do it. Pong. Good time. Ding. I should see if

I could emulate that actually. I think you can.

Yeah, you probably can. All right. So in this

epic episode in part two, because we are talking

about the two giants right now in social networking,

Facebook and Twitter, we're going to kick it

over to JT from Saskatoon, who has the just the

facts for Facebook. Social networking would very

likely not be what it is today without everybody's

favorite time waster, Facebook. Taking the concept

of social networking to a whole new level, Facebook

stands tall over other social networks and boasts

over half a billion active users as of July this

year. Facebook is full of photo albums, casual

online games, and also serves as a nexus of sorts

for all manner of online communities. In fact,

in terms of its popularity, Entertainment Weekly

probably said it best. In its end -of -the -decade

best -of list, Entertainment Weekly said, how

on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our

co -worker's birthday, bug our friends, and play

a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?

The beginnings of Facebook can be found in the

dorm rooms of Harvard University circa fall 2003.

Initially called Face Smash, sophomore Mark Zuckerberg

created the site based on two inspirations, the

popular Hot or Not website and the photo -based

directories of students that other universities

put out called Facebooks. To gain the necessary

info and photos, Zuckerberg hacked Harvard's

computer network, which resulted in his nearly

being expelled and the site being shut down.

The charges were later dropped, and eventually

Zuckerberg began again, this time recruiting

several classmates to help with the coding of

the website, which launched on February 4, 2004.

At first, Facebook was only available to Harvard

students and faculty, but soon expanded to other

Ivy League schools such as Stanford University

and MIT in the spring of 2004. And not long after,

Facebook began catching on in most universities

across North America. Later that year, Facebook

incorporated, taking its first step toward financial

profitability under the leadership of Sean Parker,

an entrepreneur who had been advising Zuckerberg

on the side. And in 2005, Facebook launched a

high school version of Facebook. And in 2006,

the site was open to anyone with a valid email

address. Facebook soon became the go -to site

for social interaction for the online community,

overtaking MySpace in early 2008. Facebook's

popularity stems from several aspects of its

setup. Many users take advantage of its simplistic

setup and easy -to -use interface, sharing photos

with their online friends and reconnecting with

family and old classmates. Another highly valued

part of Facebook is its News Feed feature, which

allows you to keep up to speed with friends,

their web links, and assorted online activities.

And unlike MySpace, Facebook has a robust developer

platform. This gives programmers the proper tools

to create apps that can increase the functionality

of the site, while also providing some great

time wasters in the form of the most addicting

casual online games ever. The proliferation of

casual online gaming became one of Facebook's

biggest trademarks. The most popular Facebook

games would have to be Farmville and Mafia Wars,

with over 200 million people playing these games

on a monthly basis. and even I must admit to

more than a passing interest in zombie lane.

But by being the biggest name in the social network

game, Facebook has generated quite a bit of controversy

right from the very beginning. Within a week

of the site being online, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

and Divya Narendra accused Mark Zuckerberg of

stealing their ideas. They claimed that while

they were working in a Harvard -centric social

network called ConnectU, Zuckerberg had promised

assistance but later reneged on the deal and

began using their ideas for his own project.

The three students later sued Zuckerberg in 2004

and were eventually awarded a $65 million settlement

in 2008. And it didn't stop there. Over the years

since its creation, Facebook has also drawn considerable

criticism from its users for the constant and

seemingly unnecessary updates, for the part it's

played in many cases of cyber -bullying, and

how advertisers like Virgin Media have removed

their ads from the site after they appear on

politically and socially unpopular pages. However,

as much controversy as Facebook has generated,

it has also left quite an impact on the social

and political aspects of our world. Unlike MySpace,

which is almost considered to be a joke by many,

Facebook has become a new avenue for new advertisers

and creative agencies to reach their prospective

audience. Facebook has also helped many families

who have been split apart by unfortunate circumstances

to reconnect after years apart. Politics have

also been affected by Facebook during the last

U .S. presidential election. Facebook users were

able to contribute questions to the Republican

and Democratic debates. And Facebook has also

played a role in the ongoing Egyptian political

revolution that started in early 2011, allowing

the protesters all over the country to communicate

and coordinate their message and demonstrations.

Facebook, for all its positive and negative aspects,

has left an indelible mark on the way we interact

and communicate with each other. It allows us

to meet new friends and waste untold hours of

time at work. And even as newer social media

are created, they will all have to take a cue

from the successes and pitfalls of Mr. Zuckerberg's

little website. Mike, where do you want to start

with this? Well, I guess we should talk about

the impact Facebook has had on pretty much the

internet culture. I mean, Facebook was partially

responsible for a number of political things.

I mean, when Egypt overthrew that Guy whose name

I can't pronounce right now because I frankly

forget how to say it People were organizing on

Facebook and people were using dial -up modem

connections to get connections in different countries

To organize protests via Facebook. I mean it's

done so many great things. It's raised awareness

There's so many different campaigns. It's done

a lot of good stuff It's also done a lot of bad

stuff too, but we can get to that a little bit

later I see it as one of the big uh... internet

juggernauts in terms of social networking and

i think it's the most popular platform right

now though not so much recently though there

has been a decline in uh... new user signups

i think there was one u s pull i think it's something

forty percent of people in the u s have a facebook

account think about how many people live in your

country that number is staggering i think that

numbers even larger in canada so there's so many

people out there you can connect with from you

know the good old people you with the high school

to the wacky crazy actually never want to talk

to again the long -lost movie stars who made

only done one or two episodes of something something

out there for everybody meant on time about the

change just in that the fact that it's everywhere

and that there's so many you know we could get

the statistics as far as the numbers of you know

people that are signed up for the percentage

of the country in center but think of how much

the extreme from how it started when it was a

college -only website where you had to have a

college email address to be a part of it. It's

ridiculous how far it's come from that point

because I remember becoming a member of Facebook

when I was in college and at that point you had

to have a college email address and the sucky

part for me was when I graduated from college

then and my college email went you know eventually

became deactivated there was like they didn't

quite have it all smoothed out as to what would

happen to you then as far as your face book account

yeah so i mean just from the select group of

people that could be on it before to it being

everywhere in the world just is amazing to me

i guess one thing we should probably discuss

before we get too far into the topic When did

everybody get a Facebook account? I got mine

February of 2007, and I remember this specifically

because I was in my second semester of my first

year of broadcasting school. I had just deleted

my live journal, which contained five years of

my life. I kind of wish I'd backed some of it

up at some point, but I started my Facebook profile,

and we used it mostly for coordinating stuff.

at the college, because MySpace just wasn't a

very good platform for sending messages back

and forth at that time. So we used to coordinate

shoot dates with it, who had the studio booked,

and all that stuff. And I have been a consistent

user since 2007. I got it. It launched in February

of 2004, and I got it sometime between February

and May of 2004. So I became a member within

its first Probably three or four months because

I graduated college in May of 2004. So it was

sometime before that. So I guess I kind of got

in right from the beginning. I didn't realize

that until just now. I honestly don't remember.

And I wish it would be. I wish it would. I wish

Facebook would show you. Remember since. Well

no seriously like I can. And I know Kevin's not

gonna like this, but I can go into my Twitter

profile and I can look at my Twitter stats and

Just you know, I can see I joined, you know August

whatever date in 2008 but really where Huh? Really?

Where do you how do you find that information

on Twitter? Yeah It's in your profile. Oh, well,

holy crap. Awesome. Continue So but what I'm

saying is I've got my Twitter profile page pulled

up, and I've got my Facebook profile under information,

the information tab. I've got that pulled up.

And Facebook does not list when I joined Facebook.

I'm sure that I should. I know. I'm agreeing

with you. I should. Yeah, it should because I

mean unless I go back which I probably ended

up deleting it But you know how of course when

you sign up for anything they hit that they sent

because they have to do the email confirmation

Hello, and welcome to Facebook. I don't think

I ever saved that email when I first signed up

But no I can I can look on my Twitter profile

at least In tweet deck here, and I can see members

since July 27th 2008 so Know I joined Twitter

before I joined Facebook. I know that much Because

I don't think I started on Facebook until people

started talking about it in late like people's

like I started interacting with people on Twitter

and they started talking about Facebook on Twitter

and Then I was like, okay cool Actually, yeah.

Yeah, I had to have joined sometime in 2009 The

reason why I joined Facebook in the first place

was to see who was getting my 10 -year high school

reunion together. Because my 10 -year high school

reunion was 2009, and nothing ever happened.

But that's why I initially joined Facebook was

to see what the 10 -year high school reunion

thing was going to be all about. And it never,

ever happened. And I just kind of stuck around

on Facebook. And now that we've created GeekCast

Radio Network, I do the fan page. you know, I

do everything else. I find for me that there

are a hand, like I have, I don't know, let's

see, I have, according to this, I have 242 friends

on here. Probably 50 or so of them are celebrities

and obviously, you know, you only interact with

them at, you know, at certain intervals. The

rest, I probably don't even, I don't even interact

with them that much, but I probably interact

with maybe 35, 40 people at one, not at one time,

but all of the time on Facebook, like I'll comment

here, comment there, stuff like that. But I mainly

use it at this point for promoting GeekCast Radio

Network. I don't use it for personal stuff anymore.

Interesting. No, I mean, the reason I got it

originally was obviously because being my last

year at college, it was a way to automatically

get links to all the other people I knew in college.

And it was like the adult version of MySpace

at the time. You know, you didn't have to deal

with kids. You didn't have to deal with a lot

of the kid -like features of MySpace. And Facebook

was just a more, from a design and a visual aspect,

the more, I don't know if you want to say sophisticated

or mature looking of the two. So it was almost

like the grownup version of MySpace at that time

is how it was perceived. Yeah. What about you,

Steve? I think I joined Facebook Are we talking

about Facebook or Twitter Facebook Facebook?

That's what I thought um Shut your face. I didn't

say anything put your chuckle in bitch I started

it. I think pretty much right after I jumped

ship from from my space and I Think I think I

wanted to try it out To begin with I did have

one account, and then I just kind of abandoned

it And then I went back to it later after I'd

learned a little bit more about it and actually

started the account I have now. So if like you

search on there, I actually have another account

on there that's no picture. It's got same name,

same information, but it doesn't work because

I lost the password to. But no, I think that.

I. I like it overall, but it's just getting too

mainstream, too big. So it's getting too clustered

with other crap Yeah Well, I don't know for me

I mean just looking at the differences I see

Facebook to me is my way of interacting with

people that I have no other means of interacting

with like it's you know family members that live

way away or People that I went to high school

or college with that I would have no contact

with otherwise You know I don't talk to him on

the phone. I don't you know email them back and

forth so I mean to me it's a way of Connecting

with people that I wouldn't normally have the

chance to connect to and Facebook is my What

it should be I guess is is the social network

for me Whereas I see as Twitter has a completely

different purpose, but I mean we can get that

later But but Facebook for me is the people that

I know it's more so for the people I've met in

person whereas Twitter has much more of a celeb

or Kind of connotation in my mind See, I use

my Facebook mostly to connect with fans, and

I actually keep a number of... relationships

open with the number of people in the PR industry

as well on there. I use it as kind of a multi

-tool. Now occasionally I have had some very

negative run -ins with Facebook. I've had to

block and entirely hide my profile from certain

people for a variety of different reasons. But

it's just my platform of choice. It just seems

everybody flocks to Facebook. One of the things

there are some things that annoy me. about the

platform and they're finally getting it right

now. This is in the last couple months. They

now have this option. If somebody invites you

to an event or a game, you now have the option

to ignore all invites. Yeah. Which I think is

a wonderful feature. You'd be surprised how many

people I just ignore now. Oh yeah, I ignore half

the people that I know. Yeah, I've been doing

that now. More so, I think that's why I started

my fan page was just that I could start deflecting

people that way because I have a lot of family

I don't talk to, like you were saying, Kevin,

on a regular basis. Then I have certain celebs

that I talk to on there and then of course all

my online friends. I kind of use this kind of

at the same time as I do Twitter. Mean I talked

to a lot of the same people between the two but

then there's some that I talked to more on either

platform Yeah, and I don't know like to me Twitter

is Not made for how at least most of us use it

like the the The purpose of Twitter, I think,

as far as it's inception, or it seems like the

most logical way to use Twitter, which I'm not

saying that we use it wrong, I'm just saying

we don't use it quite how it's necessarily meant

to be used. To me, Twitter is used to keep up

on, you know, you follow celebrities so you can

keep up with what they're doing, or you follow

a certain website or a company or a, you know,

a group like, you know, even let's say... Twig

or GeekCastRadio or something like that. You

follow something so you can get updates from

them, whereas a lot of times we use it and have

dialogue back and forth, which is really not

how it is built to be because it's so unuser

-friendly when it comes to conversations. It's

not, but at the same time, it's good in the sense

that if you've got to get something out quick

and you don't feel like typing an email or going

on a chat program and you've got a quick few

seconds, you can hurry up, punch it in there

and then... get a quick reply or Right. I'm not

saying it doesn't serve those purposes, but that's

not it's it's not how it was built I mean, so

it doesn't cater well to those sometimes No,

it doesn't because if you join in the middle

of a conversation You have no idea what the blue

blazes they're talking about and even to follow

a conversation You're just having with one person

is is really hard to do and you know for someone

like me that only is able to check it like maybe

Once or twice a day See I go back and I look

at the whole day's worth of tweets and I might

respond to something that somebody posted in

the morning which is Really not how it should

be working because then that person has no idea

what I'm responding to damn, right? But Facebook

for me has almost eliminated the use of email

like yeah, but I still use email and I use it

a lot but but Used to be before Facebook in order

to communicate to these people you you communicated

through email So you would be sending emails

back and forth to these family members or to

these friends and once Facebook is as an option

It's almost like I never even use email for that

purpose anymore see I prefer email, but that's

just because I don't like typing big messages

back and forth I'm going to try to send a message

to, let's say I have a friend that I just want

to give a quick message to or I want to ask them

a question. I'm not going to pull up my email

and write them an email. I'm going to click on

them on Facebook and send them a quick message.

Well, yeah, and I can definitely see that. That's

the easiest way and most beneficial way. But

at the same time, it's almost kind of a redundant

feature. I know that they have it so that you

can email through there, but I still prefer to

go to my email client and go through that just

because I get all kinds of messages anyway in

there and it's more of a double thing to check.

This is something that Mike and I can talk about

it at length because People have criticized us

about this Mike and I like if I send Mike an

email saying hey you need to be here at this

time No matter what this is when we're recording

this shit. You need to be here if you want in

on this He'll send me an email Just like okay,

or he'll send questions or he'll send this and

then Mike and I will end up have like I will

I've ended up having with Mike Dodd an email,

because we both use Gmail, an email that has

15 to 25 different emails. It's almost like a

Twitter conversation or comments back and forth

through Facebook. I mainly use email for sending

attachments, stuff like that, or quick, easy,

small file sending things. I'm trying to and

I'm probably going to go through in a couple

months. I'm actually going to go through my Facebook

and any fan of Geekcast Radio Network or that

wants to interact with me, they're going to have

to go to my fan page because I've got way too

much stuff that I'm following in Facebook. I

can't keep up with any of it. I have to constantly

monitor everything because I have my computer

editing anyway I always have a Facebook tab open

and a Twitter tab open and because and you know

for all the shit Facebook has gotten recently

for all the changes to the interface I really

like the sidebar where it posts everything in

real time I'm getting to like it but at first

I hated it because it's like it's almost like

you know They just moved all the notifications

over so like in in my stream on Facebook Like

you would have that like like I've I'm friends

with Tara strong on there. Well, Tara will Become

friends with like one person. I'll say she's

also friends with 16 million other people or

whatever I'm glad that they moved that part over

into the live ticker, but at the same time I

don't know. I just wish it was laid out better.

I don't know. I don't like the laid out changes.

I think there's a way to fix it, isn't there?

I haven't heard of it, if there is. I don't mind

the actual ticker portion, because I can easily

just ignore whatever's going on up there in the

corner. I don't usually even look at it. But

for me, I use the Facebook chat a whole lot.

And they still are refusing to fix what they

screwed up when they changed that. Hey, that's

why I don't even use it. I completely disabled

it and then every time they put that stupid ass

sidebar I disable it Before when the Facebook

chat was, before they made the changes, it was

absolutely user friendly and it was fine. You

could see everybody that was online, you could

choose, you could put them in lists, you could

click on them and talk to them and now, now that

they've changed it, number one, it doesn't show

you everybody or you have to scroll and do all

this other stuff and number two, half the time

people send you messages, it doesn't come through

on that. then they'll be asking you what you

said or why you said that and you're like I sent

you a message but it doesn't show up unless you

click over on the message tab because for some

reason it didn't go through on the chat there's

so many bugs with it that just bugs me well the

new one it's it's not only so buggy but it's

you can't it's it's pain in the ass to get it

to go away when you're done so I just I turned

it off completely like the old one you can get

it to turn off Which I liked. I would turn it

on if I needed it, you know, just check see who's

on, you know, and I'd chat and then this new

one came along and I'm like, oh fuck that. And

I shut that bitch off. See, I have to keep it

on because I have a ton of people that contact

me throughout the day on that. Well, and I get

these annoying people that, I mean, I'm not saying

that we get, you know, fans of the site or anything

and that are rabid or anything, but we do get

the one or two crazy people that feel like they

have to connect like on a personal level with

you you know not even just asking you questions

or just saying you know nice episode you know

just general bullshit it's they're they're just

wanting to like e -stalk you yeah and it's just

never leave you alone so i have to block these

people see i don't mind that interaction i actually

rather welcome that because i find it's a better

way to connect with them, but not everybody has

that time. Not everybody wants that personal

connection. I mean, I myself, I don't use Facebook.

I haven't used Facebook chat since probably 2009.

or 2010. Either way, it's been a long ass time.

And it sucks though, because I know there's people

who I work with, people like Pierce, who uses

it exclusively. If I want to get a hold of you,

I'll send you a Facebook message, because I know

you'll see the notification. I think that's harder

to ignore than a little bar that says you have

one message waiting for you, or I'll use email.

I don't know. I think the thing I like about

Facebook is it seems like an easier way to connect

with people, but I think that's kind of getting

lost under all the changes that are being made.

And it's going to really get lost when they change

again into the timelines. It's going to become

almost MySpace -ish. The good thing about Facebook,

in my opinion, the thing I like about Facebook

is that it takes away a lot of different things

I did and puts it all in the same place. Like

I said, I don't really use email for the same

purposes anymore because I can use it mainly

through Facebook. And the other thing was, like,

in college, we basically survived on AOL's Instant

Messenger, AIM, AIM. You know, it was... Some

people had MSN Messenger, and some people had

Yahoo Messenger, and some people had this or

that, but in college... ICQ? I had everything

and I still do. And well, but the main one we

used was the AOL one. And now I don't need any

of those because I have the Facebook chat, which

has basically taken the place of that. And I

have the same conversations through Facebook

chat that I would have through, I mean, I haven't

signed into any of those instant messengers in

years and years. So I mean, Facebook does a good

job of taking all that stuff away and giving

you the ability to, instead of sending an email

out to a bunch of people with a picture, just

posting a picture somewhere or doing this or

that. And now basically I don't need to use any

of those other instant chat programs because

I just, you know, exclusively use the Facebook

chat. So the fact that it has taken, you know,

what I used to have to go to email for or what

I used to have to go to aim for and it puts it

all in one place is the good thing for me. The

bad thing for me with Facebook is it's not the

changes that they make, it's how they go about

making the changes, how they communicate with

the user bases and how there's absolutely nothing

people can do about it. Like there's no opt out.

of certain changes which I wish there was yeah

the one thing that I absolutely hate with the

latest changes is that like say I want to link

to something on my personal page I first of all

have to click update status I have to then type

whatever the status is I have to then copy and

paste the link in. Once the link auto attaches,

I can then go back and delete the link text in

the post and then post it. Whereas if I go to

our fan page, it's the old model of, hey, you

can just click on where it says write something.

You can click on it. You can do whatever. And

then right above it, it has photo, link, video,

whatever you're going to attach. I hate that

they changed it in the ups. in the update status

bar where you actually have to click on you know

they they added like three or four unnecessary

fucking steps i just don't like the top stories

i don't like the top stories i don't like that

stupid ticker on the right side i don't like

uh like i understand the needs for the ads and

all that crap uh i don't know they're just My

two pet peeves right now I think are those two

things. I don't have a problem with any of the

other changes and I'm really not going to like

the timeline. I mean, although I've just seen

what they have on their introduction page of

it, but I don't like the concept. If I wanted

a fucking timeline, I'd build my own website.

It shouldn't be hard from a developing standpoint

and from a coding standpoint to allow someone

to simply go into their user options or their

account and say, you know, do not show me top

stories. I would only like to see recent posts.

That should be something that's very simple for

them to set up and that way the entire user base

can be happy because then it becomes customizable

to a person's preference. And that's the other

thing about Facebook is in order to change stuff,

there's no centralized location to change stuff.

You can go to your name and you can go to account

settings, you can go to privacy settings, but

that only gets you to certain things. Other things

you have to go find somewhere on the page, you

know, as far as changing something with these

stupid lists that they create, you know, with

your different customizable friend lists and

stuff like that. That's not accessible through

the same place. Sometimes you have to go elsewhere

on your page or on your profile page or on this

page or that page to find ways to change your

settings. And I don't understand why it all can't

be in one centralized location. Those are dumb

asses. I just think some of the things you're

kind of forced to, like I understand the chat

has to be a certain way for everybody because

that's running on a different type of setup.

But as far as certain things on your actual page,

you should be able to customize certain things

that don't hurt them at all as far as a coding

basis goes. I wonder if it might have something

to do with some kind of ads or something. Probably.

Everything has to do with ads. But it's gonna

get you know if people aren't careful the other

the other major negative about Facebook is the

unintelligent or the uninformed user who doesn't

realize how much they're putting out there or

how much they're exposing themselves to the world

and That's only gonna get harder with these other

changes because a lot of things the default settings

Allow ways too much of your information to go

out and if people don't know to go in and change

things They can put themselves in a world to

hurt especially professionals. If you're going

to work and use a service like this, you should

know what you're getting into. But it also means

digging into the code and reading everything.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are the casual

user who just doesn't realize that by doing this

or that, you know, people can access this information

or that information or, you know, eventually

people are going to be able to freaking tell

exactly where you are GPS wise. Well, they already

can if you activate places and you're logging

in. But I mean, certain things are going to default

to that. So if you don't go in and change it,

I don't know. It's just a scary, I mean, we've

already had how many horror stories of, you know,

the negatives that have happened because of the

stalker friendly nature of Facebook. And the

other thing is Facebook needs to be, and this

is my opinion on almost everything, and Steve

knows, Steve knows this, I've told him this.

Facebook shouldn't be anyone 13 and over. It

should be anyone 21 and over. I wouldn't go that

far. Teenagers should not be on fucking Facebook.

My cousin's on Facebook and I don't see a problem

with it. I can see them having it, but I can

see where they annoy you. I know there's specific

cases that Mike's thinking of. Well, no, it's

not even that. It actually goes back to what

we were talking about in last episode when we

were talking about the darker side of MySpace

and the whole stalking thing. 13 to 17 year old

girls should not be on Facebook because again,

it goes back to what Kevin just said. They need

to know how to set their privacy settings because

again, it goes back to stalking. Well, it should

be for everybody though. It should be in a way,

but I just, I don't know. I had to actually have

a whole discussion with certain classes I was

teaching and letting them know because the majority,

I would say about 75 % of them had all of their

stuff public. and had no idea what someone else

could access because they had not gone in and

changed their settings. Now this is a generation

that knows their way around computers and programs

and sites and stuff like that. And even these

computer intelligent... generation people did

not understand what they were doing and how easy

they were making it for you know some type of

creep out there to find out not only information

about them but find out where they're at or what

they're doing etc etc and it's just it was a

eye -opener to me that so many of them didn't

realize that they had all of their stuff on public

which for me and I have to do this and most other

people in certain jobs like mine have to do is

nobody can view anything on my page unless they're

my friend Yeah, and that's the way my wife is

too because she's a teacher. Yeah, you cannot

be friends with your students Well, it's not

even that it's it's it's there's a whole other

thing Like I mean, I I know personally know teachers

that have been fired because there was a picture

on Facebook of them with alcohol Yep, and it's

that it's so it's stuff that innocent and you'd

be surprised how bad people will get nailed for

this too because there's just so many cases out

there like for example a friend of mine I'm not

going to mention his name I had him tagged he

got really sick one time and I tagged him because

he was throwing up and he's like oh shit don't

do that and I didn't realize like oh shit I'm

sorry I most of all should like know this so

like you have to be careful what associations

you keep I mean I myself I'm sorry, Kevin, go

ahead. No, I was just gonna say it's not only

making your stuff private, but then you even

have to know another step. You have to know to

be able to go in and make it so that anytime

someone tags you in something, you have to approve

it first. Or you can even say that nobody can

tag you in anything. There's so many different

steps that you have to be conscious of. Yeah.

And I will say that since Facebook has done the

changes recently, of like that they added tag

review of people that you can tag. I like that

because, and I've told people since I created

my fan page, if you want to tag me, tag the fan

page. Do not tag my personal page because one

of the things I absolutely hate about Facebook

is if you get tagged in a post, like say Mike

goes to the This Week in Geek fan page. says

hey guys we just had an awesome nerd news with

myself mike blanchard dustin van core say scotty

do super fan clark and like four or five other

people that are fans of twig comment on that

post because i'm tagged in that post i'm going

to get twenty thirty forty fifty different fucking

notifications saying hey this person commented

on a post that you were tagged in but but but

when you want to know that though in case they

were saying something that seems to be like like

a guy that i can see where it's annoying though

i would be yes i would want to know what they're

saying if they said anything about me my thing

is with my personal page i don't want to be tagged

because i i just as i have study i have a friend

that knows i mean i've even told him and he knows

for sure that i will never comment on any of

his stuff because if I ever comment on any of

his things, his everyday status, any status he

puts in gets at least 20 replies. And he just

knows, he knows I won't comment on it because

I don't want to get those 20 emails because most

likely I'm not saying anything that's really

important. I'm making some joke or just making

some innocent comment where I'm not really concerned

about the conversation that's being had. So I

mean, that's just a personal choice, but it's

an easy thing to just remember, don't post on

that person. That's the thing. I follow one of

the Transformers animated All Spark Almanac authors,

Bill Forster. I'm friends with him on Facebook.

He made a post. At this point it was almost,

I don't know, five months ago. He made a post

and then three weeks later after like three of

us had already commented on he made a post Somebody

else commented on it three weeks later, and I'm

getting a notification like like the email notifications

and the mobile notifications I've turned all

like the email notifications. I turned all that

shit off immediately I did not want eat constant

emails from say I like the email notifications.

I can get it through my phone Well see the thing

that sucks about that is every time Facebook

renovates itself. They reset all of your privacy

settings and all of your email settings, so you

end up getting all those damn emails that you

didn't want to begin with. See, mine's never

reset on me. Mine's only reset once on the email

settings, but that was easy enough to... Well,

see, mine, every single time, and then when they,

whenever, uh... Like, for instance, you can't

go in and turn off all the group emails. Yeah,

you can. I've done it. Well, it lets you, but

you can't do the mass with, like, the entire,

like, without going into each group. Yeah, that's

true. Like I actually had to spend an hour one

day because back when Facebook groups are really

hardcore, I subscribed to a shit ton. Now I'm

subscribed to maybe five. Yeah. And it's a lot

more manageable now. I prefer fan pages over

groups. Groups are the stupidest thing I've ever

seen in Facebook because you'll have a group

for something like something so trivial like

the only one I remember right off the top of

my head. If a million fans join this group, my

sister will name her baby Megatron and then she

never may name the damn kid Megatron. But it's

like groups like that or groups that are - You

can get to a million first. Yeah, yeah groups

like that I will never freaking join. I'm glad

that we no longer have a group for GeekCast Radio

Network because again of all the notifications

and I'm actually looking at my notification settings

right at this moment since Facebook has changed

it they basically say email frequency send me

important updates and summary instead of individual

notification emails I like that that's great

but I still want all of those turned off because

I guess one of my problems with status updates

that That I'm tagged in sometimes is as I said

10 15 people might comment on that Before Facebook

made this new change I'd get 10 15 different

notifications on the same damn status Or you

have people that will comment on a status with

a completely different subject and then the status

will go on to that subject, and it's like, holy

fucking crap, stop hijacking my god damn status,

you status hijacker. I think I've done that to

you a couple times on purpose. Yes, yes you have.

You know what's funny, Kevin, you mentioned that,

you know, you've said before in the podcast that

you are a teacher, but honestly, because we are

friends on Facebook, I can see your wall and

all that stuff, but it's maybe once a month that

I actually see a status from you at all. I honestly,

Kevin, can't remember a time I've actually seen

a status update from you. Like I've seen you

comment on my stuff, but usually not vice versa.

Yeah. I mean, and that's just because, you know,

from a paranoid standpoint of you have to be

so, so careful from a professional viewpoint

as far as, you know, job security and whatnot.

But the other thing that I think Facebook has

changed, it's not only like from a professional

standpoint and worried about reactions or someone

trying to come out and get you as far as your

job goes, but think of how different interactions

from a social standpoint with your friends. What

I mean by that is, for an example, let's say

someone asks you to do something and you tell

them that you're busy or you tell them that you

got something going on or you can't do this or

that. Then it happens that whatever you were

doing in place whoever you were with make some

type of Facebook post like oh I had a great time

with so -and -so tonight Yeah, you know it's

it's just like you you can't In a nice way, you

know turn somebody down without them finding

out what you actually ended up doing that particular

day or time Yeah, you know I can I can completely

understand it for like teachers police officers

You know prosecute you know people that have

very public jobs. I very much understand that

We've been trying to convince Kevin to get his

own optimist solo fan page So he can actually

be a geek on Facebook without any consequences

He still has yet to do that. There have been

a couple of times where I've actually been on

Create a Fan Page and I've almost done it for

him, but I haven't yet. Twitter is my online

and geek venue. I know, I know, I know. You know,

as we've said before, Facebook should allow us

to customize it the way that we want to be able

to view it. Like right now, I'm getting used

to the ticker. I don't mind it so much. But again,

as Steve has said, the way that the Facebook

management people are just doing abrupt changes,

like it's like, it will be like you normally

see it as, or you've seen it like over the last

six months. And then like, within a 24 -hour

span they've changed it twice automatically and

as soon as you log back in it automatically updates

to the new style and it's it's it's just very

jarring the and to me it's not like i said before

it's not necessarily the changes because almost

90 percent of the changes i can get used to it's

the immediacy of well and it's the way that they

know they have us all by the balls because they

know they have you know x million number of people's

that aren't gonna quit I mean, you might get

a handful of people here or there that will eliminate

or get rid of their Facebook account because

they're so pissed off at a certain change or

whatnot. But in all honesty, most of the people,

a majority of people, are going to keep their

Facebook no matter what the changes are. And

Facebook knows this, so they don't give two shits

what we think, because they're just going to

do what they can to keep the ball moving, keep

it fresh, and avoid the fate of MySpace. And

they have so many. companies and they're so interwoven

with our culture and our economy that they don't

care. They're going to do what they want to do

and that's kind of the thing that turns me off

a bit but like I said, 95 % of the changes I

can live with. Like I was saying earlier, I like

the idea of fan pages and still being able to

interact with people on Facebook with Some of

the fans that we at GeekCast Radio Network have

and this, that, anything. One of the things that

I really, and thank God I found a way to get

rid of this, and Facebook is, one of the reasons

why Facebook is such a large part of people's

lives is because of the gaming on Facebook. I'm

so glad I was able to finally just get rid of

the gaming notifications because I, like I said,

I have like 242 friends and half of my stream

at one time or another was just Like, this person

has got achievement in this game. This person

has got this achievement. Yeah, I blocked all

those out immediately. I've so blocked all those

out at this point now. But it was like, oh my

god. And the other thing I really don't like

is sometimes some people... I actually turned

this off for a while, but I turned it back on

figuring that people wouldn't be such douchebags

sometimes, but I hate when people post to my

personal wall... about shit that i already know

about this is nothing against anybody in you

know anyone specific but it's anybody somebody

would like say somebody makes a post about hey

did you know that this friday is tf3 friday everybody

fucking knows that this friday is tf3 friday

that's like oh my god you mentioned the you know

the fan page though and i don't know like without

the quote unquote fan page like behind the voice

actors we would get thousands and thousands of

less hits a day because it is such a perfect

platform for us to put our updates as far as

what's been added or what's happening here and

there and every time we make one like if I make

a post on our Facebook page for behind the voice

actors and I put a link to a TV show that page

at behind the voice actors immediately within

one week gets at the bare minimum a hundred extra

hits yeah It's just so nice for us to be able

to keep, as far as to keep people up to date

with what we're doing. And thank God, the best

number one thing I like most about Facebook is

that you can post statuses that are more than

X number of characters. Well, there are services

for that for Twitter, but we'll get to that when

we get to Twitter. And Steve can really, for

us for GeekCast Radio, can talk about the stats,

but I don't know how many additional hits we

would get on our site if we didn't have the fan

page. not really sure but every time a new episode

comes out or every time we want to tease something

I'm always posting on our fan page and see that's

why it's good it's good for that type of like

the fan page both Twitter and and the Facebook

fan page are equally as good for for groups or

businesses or companies or you know television

stations to promote and keep people up to date

like it's just it's fantastic shout factory you

know following someone like that on Twitter or

you know a Facebook fan page or something like

that you know those types of things are are just

so easy for people, instead of having to go to

the website every time, you could just follow

them on one of those two services and you're

good to go. Exactly. Yeah, I'm definitely appreciative

of the fan page. Although, I will say, I get

more interaction with people less on our fan

pages, more with Twitter, actually. Yeah. I mean,

do we have anything? Steve, did you have anything

else you wanted to say about Facebook or anything?

I mean, are we pretty much done with Facebook,

or do we want to maybe give some predictions

on where Facebook could go for the future? Well,

what do you guys think is going to happen when

they unveil the timelines? I think it's going

to happen. The same thing is going to happen

every time they've unveiled something. It's going

to have a massive ... Backlash at first people

are gonna be pissed people are gonna threaten

to get rid of their Facebook and then within

You know six months or a couple months Nobody

will remember and like like I I remember being

upset the first time Facebook change And I honestly

can barely tell you how it was originally because

I'm so used to how it is now I'm not saying I'm

gonna like the changes but Facebook's not going

anywhere because they're doing things that myspace

didn't do they're doing There's like like we've

already talked about with the smartphones and

with stuff like that. They're so connected to

everything that is just way too convenient. It's

not going anywhere for a long time. And they've,

you know, they've allowed plugins for websites

where like I could go to geekcastradio .com right

now or I could go to thisweekengeek .net right

now and pull up, you know, say the Mike and Lara,

the Untitled Mike and Lara Project episode 8.

I'm sure there's a button on there. Well, the

other thing. Along those same lines the other

thing with Facebook along with the timeline that

they're that they're transitioning to is They're

trying to be you know not only that are they

gonna have an app You can go major with the phone

apps as far as Facebook connected phone apps

They're going to start trying to capture the

online video market They're gonna try to start

capturing your your music sharing thing and if

they can do the music part, right? Will be so

ecstatic to finally never have to use the most

unuser -friendly program in iTunes that I've

ever seen I Know I'm just saying if they could

do a do it right so iTunes is just made ass backwards

as far as user friendliness But I know that's

a conversation for another day But but I'm just

saying Facebook is going into so many different

you know video and phones and apps and and music

sharing and and all that stuff that I They seem

to be going in the right direction to try to

capture a huge chunk of a lot of different things.

Well, and see, they're so integrated with everything

that it's going to be kind of hard to come up

with a new standard that everybody's going to

switch to. Films advertise Facebook .com instead

of a domain name. Like you guys said, the website

is connecting to them or advertising the websites.

Everything you do online right now is tied in

through Facebook pretty much. You can't go to

a company's website without finding a Facebook

like page. Or any news articles. Any kind of

articles online, period. You have your tweet,

you have your Google +, and you have your Facebook

on there. Or the share tab that lets you do any

of them. There's so much on there now that it's

just crazy. One of the things that I think that's

a real strength of Facebook, and speaking of

companies, I mean, looking at this from a public

relations angle, when I was in school, we were

taught Facebook is one of the most powerful tools

you can have as a company. And there's more than

a few companies that use this to their advantage.

One of them, despite what you may think of the

retailer, is GameStop Canada. If they get a complaint

on their Facebook page, they are like that in

fixing it. They fix it. so quick it'll make your

head spin. I wish Maddie Collector was like that.

I don't know if it's because it's a complaint

or if it's because who I am making the complaint.

In your case, it's probably because who you are

because over the time that I've known you, you

have built up over your almost 30 years now.

since you were in college or out of high school,

you've built up, you've worked for the celebrity

that you are. And even though some of us may

think, my god, who the fuck is that? You've made

all these connections with these companies. So

I mean, in your case, it probably is who you

are. But if someone had, like say, I know he's

your Young Ward, but say ScottyDew32 had an issue.

Maybe if he posted on there, would they get back

to him as fast as they could? I find it depends

a lot on how the company handles their social

media. Some companies... are fantastic for it.

Like some companies like, like I said, GameStop

Canada seems to be really on the ball. Companies

like Arizona always have Facebook contests going

on. There's a lot of companies that really respect

the power of the youth market and use it in a

tremendously powerful way. So I don't know. It

really depends. I also find I get a lot. of interview

inquiries through Facebook or I'll have PR reps

contact me or just, you know, there's just so

many applications for Facebook from a company

standpoint. It can't really be ignored. I just

wish more companies, more of the bigger companies

would maybe take notice. of what's going on their

Facebooks and have a dedicated person, or a team

rather, just saying, hey guys, we got to get

doing this, blah, blah, blah. Like I said, some

companies are really good for it. Like I said,

GameStop Canada is one I can think of. Arizona

Iced Tea is another good one. I'm trying to think.

The company I did for Project Triforce, they

post a lot of their up and coming stuff. Like

Kevin was saying about Shout Factory, showing

all their things that come out. Like, hey, here's

a new prototype. Here's this, that, and the other

thing. I remember one of the most successful

TV shows on DVDs, another good one, and all of

the different television channels seem to be

really good at. Promoting their shows and what's

coming up and this and that not even just the

TV stations themselves not even just CBS or NBC

They've gone out and I don't I don't know who

on there On their staff is is doing this but

like i'm a fan of the big bang theory on on facebook

And they constantly will go out and promote.

Hey, here's an upcoming image of an upcoming

episode or here's a here's an upcoming clip or

hey here Watch watch the full episode and you

can watch it right instead of going to cbs .com

and seeking it out You can watch it right on

their facebook page See, that's like I said,

these are companies that really get it There

are certain ones out there that don't get it

and not every company needs a facebook page like

I don't a whole lot of reason for... I'm trying

to think of a company that doesn't need one.

Playmates. Well, see, I would disagree with that

because they need to get the new kind of product

out. Plus, they can have parents connect with

that. I don't know. I mean, maybe like a lamp

manufacturer or something like that, or somebody

who makes industrial fasteners or something.

I don't know. And that's just pulling stuff right

out of the ether. Right out of the fan blades.

Yeah, right out of the fan blades. You mentioned

a lamp manufacturer. Why would, like, other than

to maybe give away coupons, why would any kind

of restaurant or anything need a Facebook page?

Because... Now, are you talking about chain or

are you talking... Any kind of restaurant does

a lot with their Facebook as far as promoting

specials or like deals that they're gonna have

or like upcoming like, you know Like we'll have

the UFC fights this Saturday, you know for free

or you know, like we're gonna have a wing deal

Fast food places. I'll put it that way fast food

places do not need Facebook. That's probably

I would disagree with you because it depends.

Because I find people, if they can hide behind

a keyboard, they're a lot more likely to tell

you what they really think. In a fast food restaurant,

if you go on McDonald's page and blast them,

odds are you're going to get a contact from a

rep. Honestly, it's only probably a matter of

time before all of our ordering can be done through

Facebook. As far as like ordering a pizza from

Pizza Hut, go to their Facebook page and order

it right there. Go to, I mean I could see that

happening. There's an app for that, yeah. Yeah,

and that's a really good idea to integrate that

much. I mean, I remember when it was a big deal

when I think World of Warcraft or EverQuest had

the option to order a pizza in game and it would

literally come to your house, which is kind of

awesome. And there's so much potential for Facebook

to be used. Now, speaking of fast food restaurants,

I can think of one marketing campaign happened

a couple years ago. It got a little bit of flak

when I thought the idea was hilarious. It was

called something like lose your friends for a

whopper. And for every 10 friends you defeated,

they took your whopper. I thought that was brilliant.

Like, who would you sacrifice for a whopper?

I'm 1700 friends in. I promise you, more than

a few of you are getting cut for that delicious

cut of beef. I do have to say, one of my biggest

pet peeves for Facebook, and I apologize if this

is any of you, but... Well, it depends, because

not so much if it was any of you guys, because

you have your personalities as far as Twig or

Geekcast Raider or whatnot. But when the average,

common, everyday person has a couple thousand

friends, that is just a pet peeve to me. If you're

on a fan page or if you're trying to promote

something, obviously you want as many connections

as you possibly can get. But for me, I don't

know. I don't think a personal page should have

somebody that has a couple thousand friends.

Well, see the thing of it is, and I'm looking

at this specifically as, you know, promoting

GeekCast Radio Network. Right, if you're promoting

something or if you're... Right, no, no, no,

I know, but what I'm saying is like half of my

242 friends, probably a good majority of them

are the celebrities that I've asked to be friends

with because say we're going to promote, interview

with Rob Paulson or interview with such -and

-such, interview with Barbara Goodson and Robert

Axelrod. In order to promote that and link back

to their fan pages or their Facebooks, you either

have to already like them or be friends with

them. But that's different than the 15 year old

high school student who has 2000 friends. Yeah,

that's a little ridiculous. Like there's no way

they know those people. No. And then it becomes

a popularity thing where it's like, oh, who has

the most friends and you're not cool if you only

have 200 friends. And that's kind of like the

peer pressure high school bullshit that is an

unfortunate side effect of Facebook. And I think

South Park covered that quite happily too. Yes,

yes they did. The last thing I want to bring

up is a lot of people seem to think, and as I

said before in this part of the episode, that

I'm seriously going to be going back through

my friends list and deleting a lot of people

and asking them to go to my fan page because

I want to personalize my Facebook a little more.

It's like the end of the world as we know it

because you've been deleted off someone's Facebook.

Oh, we didn't even talk about relationship statuses.

Oh yeah. Let's not even go there. Let's not even

even go there. Those are fun to troll. I'm sorry.

But you're not official with someone unless you're

official on Facebook. You know, it's funny, that's

actually what brought two of my friends together,

not too recently actually. My friends Liam and

Ashley, they've been kind of dating, kind of

not, and Blair, my wife, is like, you know what,

fuck it guys, just make it official on Facebook,

just say you're dating, you're diddling, just

get it over with. And they're like, I don't know,

and then they... dot on face book and they've

been happily together for like two months now

i think it's actually onto the point where there's

actually etiquette i think for relationships

like i think it is uh... deemed that it's like

the female job to be the one that uh... not only

are like if you're just starting today that's

the females job to request you as a friend uh...

It's not supposed to be vice versa as far as

what I've been told like the guy in the relationship

If you're just starting to know each other is

not supposed to request you as a friend It's

almost like that first phone call back in the

day when we were first dating people wait wait

three days And yeah, it's almost like there's

actually like etiquette and like as far as like

asking if you want to be You know to try to make

your relationship status official. That's also

the apparently the woman's job to be the one

that initiates that I Don't know What kind of

gets me is some people that I know on Facebook,

and I'm not going to single them out, but some

people I know on Facebook about a year and a

half ago, they would be joking around and adding

their friends as family members and relationships.

It's like this this person. Oh, yeah this person

as being in a relationship with each other And

then they have these kids and it's just their

friends It's not even I had a lot of students

that that are from a different country I have

a lot of students that are from a different country

that are married to their best friend and that

have their other guy friends as their kids and

all kinds of crazy stuff Wow, that's kind of

freaky. Yes, although it's better that they're

then I don't know getting I guess if they're

gonna joke around and just say like they're married

to their best friend They're avoiding a lot of

the relationship status drama because nobody

can give them a hard time. I Guess there were

people that I knew are actually still know One

of my friends a different Ashley used to be specifically

in a Facebook Relationship so guys wouldn't troll

her. Yeah But then when they fake broke up people

got pissy It's a gone sense, you know, it used

to be just single or in a relationship and now

there's like in a civil union it's confusing

it's like there's so many different options there's

so many fucking options at this point i would

like to be married to my cat in a domestic civil

union with uh my game park live in zimbabwe yep

that that is what i want to have happen and on

that note we're gonna head back to saskatoon

to talk to jt for twitter we'll be back after

this Ever had an idea, a funny joke, or just

something completely screwball rattling around

in your head that you had to share with everybody?

Well, we now have the solution to that age -old

problem. Everything from random movie quotes

and stress -busting jokes, anything can be shared

on the internet all thanks to Twitter. Rivaling

even Facebook and its ability to connect with

people in 140 characters or less, Twitter is

the premier instant messaging application of

the new millennium. Despite being less than six

years old, Twitter has already carved out a huge

chunk of the social network market. Twitter got

its start just five years ago at a podcasting

company named Odeo. Board members were looking

for ways to communicate more efficiently and

were approached by software engineer Jack Dorsey

about his idea for a real -time based short message

service. The Odeo board members approved his

suggestion and in the space of two weeks Dorsey

coded and built a prototype naming it Twitter

from the words definition of a short burst of

inconsequential information. Released to the

Internet publicly on July 15, 2006, Twitter was

a huge hit with the social networking crowd,

experiencing some very rapid growth from the

beginning. Twitter saw almost a half million

tweets by 2007, and by February of 2010, Twitter

users were tweeting upwards of 50 million times

a day. By June of that year, Twitter's stats

could be broken down so that of the 65 million

tweets a day, this would equal out to 750 tweets

a minute. Twitter's usage also spikes during

prominent events like political debates and televised

sporting events. For example, during the 2010

FIFA World Cup, during the 30 seconds after Japan

scored against Cameroon at one point on June

14th, soccer fans tweeted an astounding 2 ,940

times a second. That is some very fast thumb

typing. And as of March 2011, Twitter had over

200 million active tweeters, placing it right

up there with Facebook in terms of popularity.

Very similar to IRC chat clients, Twitter allows

users to tweet about whatever is on their minds,

sharing personal experiences, interesting web

links, and photos of last night's epic party.

One of Twitter's unique contributions to social

networking has to be the inclusion of hashtags.

Tweets labeled with hashtags, which are words

or phrases prefixed with a number sign, can be

used to group tweets together about a popular

subject. Users can also follow other Twitter

accounts and repost or rather retweet the post

that they find interesting or useful in some

way. And users not only have the main website

to tweet with, there are also many alternate

choices as well. Twitter has a very popular mobile

version for use on cell phones, and there are

also Twitter clients such as Ubersocial, Twitterific,

and TweetDeck that one can use without booting

up a web browser. Twitter also periodically updates

the site and its various applications, aiming

to streamline the experience and provide greater

ease of use to its many users. Twitter, like

all social media applications, has received both

accolades and criticism since its inception.

Twitter has come under fire by some critics for

its bombarding others with the minutiae of one's

daily life. Some have complained about the mundane

aspects of most tweets asking why would anyone

tweet about their life if it's not that interesting.

And tech writer Bruce Sterling even went as far

as to say, using Twitter for literate communication

is about as likely as firing up CB radio and

listening to someone recite the Iliad. Not a

fan this guy. However, just like Facebook, Entertainment

Weekly had Twitter on its end -of -the -decade

best -of list, calling the service a diabolically

addicting social networking tool. Many fans have

said that part of Twitter's appeal is trying

to be concise in 140 characters or less, which

is the limit of your average tweet. In 2009,

however, Twitter won Breakout of the Year at

the annual Webby Awards. And, alongside Facebook,

Twitter has played a huge part in organizing

protest demonstrations and trading information

in several political hotspots around the world,

most notably during the 2009 -2010 Iranian elections

and the ongoing political revolution in Egypt

that began earlier this year. For good or ill,

Twitter has effectively changed the way, the

frequency, and even the amount of which we communicate

with others on a daily basis. It makes its many

users cut away all the bull of what they want

to talk about and get to the heart of the matter.

With Twitter, users can exchange ideas, share

photos and videos, and even change someone's

outlook on life. All this in 140 characters or

less. Anyone know any good apps from my iPhone?

Craig, what are you doing? I'm twittering. Did

you get my tweets? I just tweeted all over the

place. What's Twitter? It's the latest social

networking microbloggy thingy. I'm not interested.

Damn it, Darren! You are a young, hip, tech -savvy

twenty -something and I will not let you turn

into my father! Come on! Where are you taking

me? Into the Twitter -sphere! Twitter! What is

this place? It's a magical world! With Twitter,

you can tell everyone what you're doing... at

all times, no matter how trivial, mundane or

embarrassing. Watching TV with my cat. I forgot

how much I like pickles. At the free clinic.

Uh -oh. Who are they talking to? No one. And

everyone. Darren, this is how our generation

communicates now. With detached, bite -size yippity

-yap. Okay, but... I don't care what other people

are doing every second of the day. No, neither

do I! But we do want other people knowing what

we're doing, right? No, no, why is everyone such

an exhibitionist all of a sudden? Don't you Twitter

-stand? You could become a Twitter -leopardy!

Like these Twits! Hot Socky and Cold Unagi, is

there anything more sublime? I just connected

my bing -boing to my flurb -flop with a new RSS

twinkle I wrote. Nice tweet, ma 'am! Ha! Twitter!

Dear Sunshine, I know we've disagreed in the

past, but let's make amends today over margaritas

at the beach. Tweet -tweet -tweet -tweet -tweet!

How droll! Fantastic, Twits! Okay, it seems like

Twittering is just randomly bragging about your

unexceptional life. Oh, now you're getting it!

Twitter! Craig, you seem like a normal guy. Why

are you doing this? Because it's like I'm hanging

out with my friends all the time! Just found

a parking space. But if they were really your

friends, wouldn't they call you personally to

see how you're doing? Uh, well, um... Uh, shut

up! Friends don't just randomly shout into the

darkness and hope someone's listening. What are

you trying to say? Pick your next words wisely.

None of you have any friends! No! It's gonna

be okay. It's gonna be okay. We're gonna get

you help. Are you alright? Yeah, yeah. Hold on.

I've got... I've cut to Twitter about this. Ugh.

This podcast will not be in 140 characters or

less. Thank God. But you can like our Tumblr

account. OK. All right, we have to go on a tangent

with this. I know Twitter and all of its subsidiaries

like TweetDeck and crap like that, the services

that you can use besides the Twitter website

have preset like TwitPick or TinyPick or YFrog

or this, that, and the other thing. Somebody

please fucking, I hate Tumblr. Every time I click

on a Tumblr link, it takes me to something that

the person didn't even post to. Or it's the exact

same thing they just put on Twitter. yeah pretty

much yeah i don't get it either i don't get it

so thank you jt for that rousing just the facts

on twitter rousing yes that's right not rousing

even rousing damn it like a rousing round of

chess or something i don't know leave yeah whatever

shut up steve have an erotic just the facts move

it on with jk chill i'm jt from saskatoon and

ladies i'm talking to you If you're listening

we cannot control Mike the bird man died I'm

gonna seduce you at a hundred and forty characters

or less Just saying anyway moving on you so need

to post that to him on Twitter right now Do it

do it now do it? That's the main thing that supports

why this is mainly and obviously we all know

how to use it and we use it for conversations

and we can reply and we can do whatever but that's

why it was mainly meant for just people to give

quick updates about what they're doing it's more

for it's not so much for the poster it's for

it was made more for people to be able to follow

other people you follow someone else and you

keep up to date with what they're doing because

you're curious about their life or whatever whether

it's a celebrity or whether it's a someone you

actually know that's the purpose of twitter even

though obviously it's been evolving as it after

it became a thing to mean all these other different

things and people use them for their own customizable

purposes. Right. Now, Kevin, you mentioned earlier

in the episode about messengers and instant messengers.

Right now, simply because of I hate MSN and I

hate Yahoo at this point in time and I never

was a member of AOL. I was, but I never really

ever used it. I use Skype for an actual instant

messenger service. but for people that want to

actually interact with me on like we were talking

earlier about the facebook chat stuff I use Twitter

for interactions like all the stupid, you know,

everyday interaction stuff. That's what I use

it for. Besides the fact that I also use it as

a promotional tool for GeekCast Radio Network

and this week in Geek and whatever else I promote.

Which is good. It's good for... It's sort of

the same purpose of the Facebook fan page, which

is just as good for all those companies to give

updates, you know, for GeekCast Radio, for Twig,

for Behind the Voice Actors to give updates on

what they're doing. It's perfect for that because,

like I said, that fits the purpose of... or the

original goal of people just being able to follow

something and keep up to date with them where

you run into problems when you use it like we

do sometimes as far as conversation pieces because

it is so not user friendly for conversations.

Well, I will kind of disagree with that because

I mean, I can like, you know, like say take TweetDeck,

for example. I hate TweetDeck. Well, that's fine.

Just because I don't have it. Well, it's free.

You can get it. It's for desktops. I just stopped

using it. But tweet deck I can separate my interests

with the lists and groups and stuff and I like

that on tweet deck I don't like it on Facebook

because of the constant notifications, but like

Say here, let's see. I don't like having to click

on something every time to see your guys's full

post though Right. Okay. Well, that's like the

extenders like like tweet deck uses. I believe

they use deck I L Y or L Y or something like

that Sometimes I do long posts like that sometimes

I don't but if it's just like obviously within

the character limit It's fine But say up to bottom

has sent me a reply earlier today If I click

on that post it'll say in reply to I can click

on the in reply to See that's not from Twitter

the site though Yeah, but you're never actually

on Twitter comm Exactly, because Twitter .com

sucks. Well, that's what my point is. For all

the rest of us, there's so much crap that makes

conversations almost impossible to follow. Well,

TweetDeck is free. You can get TweetDeck, you

can learn it, you'll be okay. See, I don't have

any problem following conversations on Twitter,

because if I want to see what people are talking

about, I just click on the person, go to Show

Conversation, and see what the hell they're talking

about. But it seems like sometimes it doesn't

always work, or someone replies to someone and

they don't click the right thing to reply to.

And then they respond. Let's say Mike makes two

posts, and I want to reply to the first one,

but I just find the first time I see his name

and I hit Reply, it doesn't connect it to the

right conversation. So people don't always use

it. Right. And there are times where I've made

a post, or Kevin's made a post, or I'll send,

at Birdman Dodd, you need to call me right the

fuck now. reply and then I'll reply later on

and sometimes I'll click on his in reply to or

say say some fan says hey what did you think

of that Thundercats episode because I might have

said something about it whenever it aired but

when I click on the in reply to it's like nothing

shows up and it's like what the fuck I will agree

sometimes it doesn't show up but most of the

times it does I have to spend so much more time

to try to get my stuff down to 140 characters

I'm not sure that's a bit of a chore That's why

I and see that's where it's worse than text language

always hate a lot of people I know I know Michael

Wilson hates this like Hey optimus solo before

being the number four We record tonight. Can

you do this for me? Dot, dot, dot. Oh, BTW, you

know, you know, we have to go. Jargon of shortening

everything. Yeah, but teachers are upset about

the language that people learn through texting.

Twitter makes it even worse. Yeah. I think, honestly,

if Twitter could increase the character limit

to 160, I know that's only 20 more characters,

but that's how many my iPhone can send in a single

text, because I have like a counter on it. I

don't know. I think that would be something.

But then again, if you were to remove the character

limit, you know you get some asshole kid posting

fucking novels or something. Oh yeah. Like war

and peace in a tweet. The other thing I've had

a major problem with is trying to... unfollow

people like I've unfollowed someone before and

it takes like I don't know you have to be like

a rocket scientist to get so their things don't

continue to show up on your page yeah like I

unfollowed them it says they're unfollowed everything

I go in says they're unfollowed and days later

their posts are still showing up on my page What

I've noticed with using TweetDeck is even if

I unfollow them, if I've added them to a list,

a certain segregation list, it'll still show

up even though I've unfollowed them. So I have

to remove them from that list to completely get

rid of them. But I am glad that they do give

you the option to protect your tweets because

I wasn't ready for the complete. moronic psycho

wanted -to -kill -me guy that came after me after

I posted some stuff on Twitter. I've never even

heard of this person before. Kevin, let me tell

this story. You know how we over at This Week

in Geek usually almost once a week if not three

times a month post or we talk about a celebrity

passing away? And sometimes it will affect one

of us, it'll affect none of us, or it'll affect

only certain ones of us. Well, apparently somebody,

who was it, Kevin? Who was it that passed away?

It was the guy from Jackass, I think. Oh, uh,

Ryan Dunn. Yeah, Ryan Dunn passed away, and apparently

Kevin made a post saying, I'm sorry, I just don't

care about you. No, I said, is it bad that I'm

proud that I don't know who this person is? Okay.

Or something like that. and all of a sudden some

suddenly someone replied to him saying oh my

god you're a horrible fucking person i hope you

fucking die now or something yeah the dude went

on like a 48 hour tirade and wanted my life what

i'm just like i don't even know this guy he was

some College student from like North Carolina

or something and he was just going berserk And

I was like how do I get rid of this guy like

why is he even able to say? I didn't he I don't

even know how he was following me or how he even

saw me I don't even understand how he came to

see my tweet, but after I protected my tweets

I no longer have to deal with those people, but

I did unprotect them recently just to see if

he would still comment against me Wow fuck them

And one of the things I've noticed about people

that just give me random tweets, like perfect

example is the RoboCop, I'd buy that for a dollar

asshole account. I will block and report spam

any account I don't want to deal with. Anyone

that just mentions me out of the blue that I'm

not already following or I don't know, I will

constantly block and report spam, block and report

spam. I will do that to anybody. I check them

first, but then but most of them I end up doing

that just because I can tell they're total bullshit.

You know, there was really only one thing that

was ever going to get me to cancel my Twitter

account, and that was the Follow Friday bullshit.

Oh, there was a lot of people do that anymore.

Thank God. I think because it became just annoying.

There was one guy I used to deal with on Twitter.

You know, he's a fine guy. like he himself is

fine i'm not gonna mention is his name here right

but his entire twitter stream was just him hitting

on girls that was the most fucking annoying thing

i can imagine and i and you know i mean i have

a few adult actresses on my face on my twitter

but i know these people enough that i can pick

up a phone and call them Yeah, I mean, you've

interviewed several different adult actresses

in your career, and you've interviewed a couple

of them multiple times. I mean, it's almost like

the email relationship that I have with Stan

Bush, where I can email him, hey, Stan, what

do you got for us? Do you have anything you want

to promote? Or, hey, Stan, can we get this to

promote it in this or whatever else? But yeah,

I mean, people that do stuff like that, it's

like, oh my god. Go ahead. There are just so

many people like it's when I see people use Twitter

for that I Don't know it bothers me on a level

and I guess you know It's no different than someone

using Facebook to pick up chicks and but just

it just seems so juvenile But as far as the follow

Friday thing that Kevin's talking about it almost

got so bad that on Fridays I didn't even want

to log into Twitter because that's all your whole

thing would be would be people fucking mentioning

people See, I don't turn Twitter on on Monday

nights because of fucking football and wrestling.

Because that's all my newsfeed becomes. Yeah.

Well, I don't want to see a Friday newsfeed of

follow, follow, follow, follow, follow. And I'm

like, if I want to follow them, I'll follow them.

Well, you know, hold on here. Wait a second.

With the Follow Friday, there is, you know, there's

people that just put the hashtag and then list

people. You know, there's sometimes when I used

to do it, I would say, hey, hashtag follow Friday,

the GC RN crew. And I would put mine and Steve's

and Kevin's and whoever else was hosting with

us. Like I would make them specific to those

people. I wouldn't just list them. Well, is it

so hard to actually write a status and include

the people's names that we just have to the part

is when you just post something that's just a

series of names. Right and I and I understand

that but that's what well what I'm saying is

when I would you know When I first did it I did

it that way, but then I learned I'm like, okay

Well, if I want to actually promote these people

I would say hey check out the Radio Free Cybertron

crew or check out the This Week in Geek crew.

That's not as bad. If you write something in

addition to listing say three or four names,

that's Less annoying. I agree just listing 20

names in one post is like ah I have yet in my

entire time on Twitter to ever use a hashtag

hashtags are a good thing like like say Say we're

all watching the new episode of The Big Bang

Theory or two and a half men Use a hashtag of

two and a half men and you can actually click

on that hashtag And it will take you to other

people that may be watching it So maybe you find

new people to talk to so in that case hashtags

are Good a little bit, but yes, I'm just saying

I've never used one ridiculous. I just don't

see the point What about you Steve? What is your

Twitter experience? Well when I first signed

up for it, I don't even know how I found it to

be honest i don't uh one of the first people

i actually followed was uh you and birdman yeah

i i was listening to twig when it was live on

streaming on the internet on like 9 a .m yeah

on friday mornings on sears county point one

fm yes i didn't miss the shows like i would plug

in my headset so But yeah, I'd sit there and

I was enjoyed by, you know, enjoying the show

and everything else. And then I think I wanted

to start doing feedback and whatnot. And so I

think that's how I got into it. And then I started

wanting to doing podcasts because of obviously

before we started this network. But anyways,

I used it mostly to connect with people from

Transformers, podcasting, voice actors, tech

people, just whoever piqued my interest. And

as time's gone on with it, I've found it to be

a useful tool just more so for seeing just what's

going on with people. Or whether I feel like

checking out some random articles that people

are posting. Just based on who I follow, it depends

on what I look at. But some of the annoying things

are... And they haven't gone through too many

annoying things on their home page So I'm thankful

for that, but they do have a lot of spam accounts

Well Twitter has only gone through unlike Facebook.

I think one major update. Yeah But I mean I pretty

much use tweet deck if I can Just because it's

more clean laid out. I can just sit there in

the program and type and it does everything for

me, but There's a gra - I'm sorry to interrupt

you, but I find this so funny. There's a graph

on the tweet - not tweet deck, on the Twitter

Wikipedia page of, like, what it's used for.

Pointless, babble, and conversational are the

two largest pieces of the pie. The rest are news,

spam, self -promotion, and pass -along value.

Well, I mean, it's true to an extent. I mean,

because that's what you're doing. You're just

promoting stuff. Yeah. Like I said before, it's

good for a real quick conversation. Like if you're

trying to just pass a note like, yeah, I won't

be on right now. I'll be on later, you know,

or just or give me a call, you know, that kind

of stuff. Yeah, I can see that. Or if you're

making a quick, you know, saying like, oh, read

my review on this. Click here. You know, stuff

like that. I can see that. That's legitimate.

The people that put. I'm taking a shit and then

just they leave it at that or I'm giving birth

or I'm taking a shower, blah, blah, blah. You

know, just it's asinine and mostly anybody who

can tweet while giving birth has my full attention.

Now, mind you, I've twittered. I've twittered

from the operating table before. And that was

to be. Like hey, I'm still alive. I'm twittering

Things is One of the greatest things that I find

is the integration with Facebook and Twitter

between four square and get glue So instead of

me, you know Coming out to my computer and saying

oh, hey, I'm watching this I can go and get glue

getglue .com and you know check into a certain

show or I can go on Foursquare and and again

this goes back to the stocking thing like people

could really stock you but in my case I've never

used either of those in my case when I joined

Foursquare half the check -ins I did I was sitting

right here well and the thing is uh mostly for

um As far as Twitter, it's very similar to Facebook

in that it's everywhere as well. It's not as

widely used as Facebook, but it's pretty much

second. I found that I like it a lot more than

Facebook in some instances just because I don't

have to deal with all the extra bullshit that

comes bundled with Facebook. I mean, Facebook

has its benefits, of course, but I like Twitter

just because it's a quick... Go to thing. I don't

have to deal with the hassle of a messy interface.

I don't have to deal with Any of that I can just

look at people that I talk to Look at the certain

messages people that communicate with me, and

then that's it I Don't know I Understand I understand

all that to me I would much prefer Facebook over

Twitter just because of all the different multi

-dimensional things you can do with Facebook

compared to Twitter you can basically just I

like how Twitter is less demanding of bandwidth.

That's true. What I mean by that is when I travel,

and I usually end up traveling a lot during the

year, Twitter is more easy for me to access.

I mean, because your data rates in your country

fucking suck. You know what I'm actually talking

about? You're preaching to the choir there. oh

yeah i don't have any of that to deal with so

i don't know what you guys are talking about

okay so when i travel abroad if i want to check

my facebook you better believe i'm gonna goddamn

pay for it even if it's the mobile version if

i do twitter it's less intended it's mostly just

text and really really tiny uh... pictures so

no more than a couple of kilobytes uh... however

though i found i got raped by incoming twitter

no Notifications. Yeah, like I had to turn those

off. So I have to physically check Twitter to

see if I have any responses, but I don't know.

I mean, I first got in the Twitter when I was

actually at a conference involving new media

at Ryerson University where me and Snowball were

speaking. Snowball been on Twitter for like,

I don't know, like a year or something, and he

wouldn't shut the fuck up about it. He's like,

Mike, get Twitter. And I hear this guy talk named

Chris Brogan, which if you're a social media

guy, that's a name you should know and respect.

Oh, yeah. And he was talking about it. And I'm

like, you know what? Fuck it. I'll sign up for

Twitter right now. And I didn't get it at first,

but then I've come to like it more and more as

I've gotten used to it. I don't know. It does

grow on you more. Yeah, I find Twitter still

is my go -to client because it updates my Facebook

automatically, but I wouldn't have them independent

of each other. A friend of mine, Kyle Abear,

was going to do that. He was talking, oh man,

maybe I need to separate my Facebook and my Twitter

because I'm annoying people. I should post different

content. You know, I like the fact that my Twitter

syndicates to my Facebook because I only have

i'm just gonna look on my twitter followers i

have i have sixteen hundred almost seventeen

hundred people oh wow i just realized i've got

almost the same on facebook my point is now moot

never mind you know and there are misconceptions

i mean there are those people that steve mentioned

about you know just posting random shit of, I'm

eating a bagel or I'm taking a dump. You know,

there are those people out there, but Twitter

isn't just that. And I absolutely love it. And

we're going to probably put it in the, at the

end of the episode here. I love the video that

Supernews did about how useless Twitter is. And

it's such a hilarious video. It's so awesome.

But it's not just useless crap that people might

want to read about you. Like we've said, it's

a promotional tool. At least for most of us at

this point, I would think it is. I mean, Mike,

I know you live your life on Twitter and Facebook,

and that's fine. That's your choice. And I kind

of do, too, more so Twitter than Facebook. But

Twitter, again, you're reaching so many people.

Or, again, interviews. If we have an interview

with Tara Strong, or if we have an interview

with, uh, Jesus. Well, I mean, I got - If you're

thinking more along the lines of like, Ralph

Balzner or Maurice LaMarche, you know, you could,

you know - Well, like, I mean, I got David Soboloff

and Ian James Corlett via Twitter. Yeah. So...

It's more of a direct contact for some of the

celebs because, especially voice actors, because

they actually use it. Whereas you get into your

mainstream actors most of them don't do it themselves

Yeah, especially if this is verified Well, no,

I've kind of realized this some do some don't

but most of them don't if that's the case I found

that I found that most voice actors actually

do their own and then some actors and you can

tell Who does their own based on their personality

types? Oh, yeah Star Trek people. I mean, yeah

I mean, even that, I mean, you can tell just

because they're more outgoing on there with their

fans. Yep. Yes, exactly. Do we have anything

else we want to talk about, Twitter? It's fucking

awesome and you should use it. I do use it, you

dumbass. I don't think it'll be going anywhere

unless something else comes to replace it or

somebody buys it up and attaches it to their

service. If Google Plus were to eat up either

Twitter or Facebook, I think it would like if

it implemented correctly It could benefit them

for Google Plus Yeah, if done correctly There

are many ways that one can fuck up a process

Well, yes, just look at my space That's true.

That's like a cluster of all three. Yes, exactly

So it has to be controlled growth. I think that's

the big thing. If Twitter is going to innovate,

it needs to be controlled. It needs to be spearheaded

by the right people. And as long as they agree

to the philosophy, if it ain't broke, don't fix

it. Twitter is one of the most baffling things,

though, as far as I'm concerned. It's one of

the ones that I can't believe it became as popular

as it did just based on its original conception.

To any novice person or anybody that is not already

using it, it's... Sounds on surface value. It

sounds like the most retarded thing in the world

It does and it's not some not but that's what

it sounds like to the average person They're

like what is the point of that for instance my

my parents and my brothers tried using it for

a while and they just didn't freaking understand

it so they went back to Facebook and Think unless

you're a tech person or you're somebody that's

into all of this You won't understand actually

how to properly use any of it Or you just don't

understand the point of it to begin with and

that's the yeah Stumble whereas Facebook could

say it's a lot more people are can more easily

identify its purpose and it's the goal of why

you're using it Yeah Exactly So with that, we're

gonna head to some ads and we're gonna come back

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for the first time in GeekCast Radio Network

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1 schedule with all 35 episodes. Please look

this over, because we would hate for you to cast

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Once you've done this, just scroll to the section

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Movie Week in Review is the Geekcast Radio Network's

weekly movie podcast. Steve and Mike take a look

back on their favorite films and give you their

thoughts. They also bring in co -hosts at times.

If you are a movie buff, listen to M -Wire only

on geekcastradio .com. So that's going to do

it, folks, for our social networking coverage

as somebody dies from coughing. I'm not sure

what the hell that was. Any final thoughts, Mike,

on the overall progression of social networking

summing up in 30 seconds or less? I think it's

a wonderful way for our society to communicate

and express ideas, also not just to get together

and cause real change. Like I said, look at what

happened in Egypt this year, the uprisings in

Syria. all coordinated via social networking.

But there's also a dark side to it. So like any

new emerging technology or social thing, it has

to be watched. It has to be monitored. It has

to be used responsibly. I just hope we as a society

are smart enough to know what we're doing with

such a powerful tool. Because I cannot imagine

life without it as sad as that sounds. Yep. Same

here. It made me who I am. Social networking

made me made my career. Made you the bastard

that you are. Made us get free shit too. put

the Birdman in my dad. Exactly, more or less.

Kevin, do you have any other final thoughts?

Just like I said, I can't imagine doing things

or not having this interaction that I have with

everyone. Maybe with the smartphones, I would

be able to have some of the interaction with

other friends and long lost classmates or family

members or this or that. Facebook just makes

life easier and and you know I can see how Twitter

does the same for for some people too See and

that's the thing like Twitter and tweet deck

you know I Prefer using the mobile version of

Twitter the actual Twitter application, and I

prefer using tweet deck I hate using Twitter's

website, but I'm actually the flip side on Facebook

I I'll check mobile Facebook just to see if I

have any new notifications. Other than that,

when I'm actually on Facebook, I'm sitting here

at my computer, so it's almost a flip side. I

think that it can only go up from here for social

networking in general because we all become way

more social. Buckle up, it's going to get bumpy

from here. I think that's the truth. Steve, any

final thoughts? Definitely, I would say that

to watch out for Google+. because I think that

they do have some good stuff coming along. As

for MySpace, if you're still on it, get the hell

away from it. It's just it's been dead for years.

Jim, it's dead. Be ashamed of yourself. Yeah,

be ashamed of yourself. It's dead. It should

have been like evaporated by now. It's just I

don't know. But you could become the king of

MySpace because there's no competition. I'll

be the mayor of MySpace. That's like being the

king of your junior high or something. That's

like saying... Maybe MySpace should still exist.

Yeah, well I'm king of the mountain, bitch. MySpace

should still exist, but it should only be for

people that are under 17. I could legitimately

see that. Let them have their own world. Yes,

let them keep their own world. Leave them there

if they want to customize their profiles and

shit out of people. I would say Facebook, though,

is probably the number one way to communicate

at this point. If the day comes along where we

click on a Facebook person's page and music starts

blaring in our ears, I'm going to be pissed off.

When that day comes, I'm disbanding my account

and I will go solely to Twitter. I don't know

how many heart attacks I almost had when I clicked

on people's MySpace page back in the day. Yeah,

it's so so bad Alright, so we hope you enjoyed

this episode of geek cast radio wish you'll join

us next time and we'll be starting the music

spotlight when we will be talking about our Parents

music and I actually I actually called my mom

and I said I need you to make me a list of everything

you listen to as a child and a teenager I believe

shouldn't you know that by now? No I believe,

because most of the stuff we'll be talking about

is 60s and 70s music, I believe David Double

D Dennis will be joining me for that episode

from This Week in Geek .net. So for now, I have

been TFG1 Mike with Optimus Solo. Steve Megatron

Phillips. Mike the Birdman Dodd. Thank you for

listening, until next time. on the Geekcast Radio

Network. There are several ways to get in contact

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