Keeping up with the Joneses

It used to be having the latest gadget, but among the technorati status is defined by how many clever new bits of software you're currently playing with. If you're not using Dump, the new cloud app that lets you chronicle whenever go to the toilet and share it with your virtual social circle then you clearly don't get social networking.

The mobile phone industry is currently obsessed with social networking as a demand driver, but how many people older than 25 have a) the time to constantly update their 'friends' about what they're doing/thinking, let alone keep track of everyone else, and b) give a shit anyway?

Dan Lyons - also known as The Fake Steve Jobs - wrote something recently for Newsweek, in which he lamented the launch of Google Buzz as yet another needless social networking site he feels compelled to try out for fear of being accused of not 'getting it'.

"Then came Google Wave, and again I signed up, but as far as I can tell nobody is actually using Google Wave, mostly because nobody can figure out what it does or how it works, so that it exists only as a catnip toy for new media wanker-pundits who love it because it gives them something to blather on about, plus it provides them with yet another weapon in their arsenal of things that can be used to make lesser folks, like me, feel yet more guilty and left behind.
," he said in his story.

Very amusing and a good point.