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Friend (n.): Acquaintance. Dimly-recognized name. Means of driving up your numbers on LinkedIn.

(one businessperson to another) It was great meeting with you. Have your people friend my people.

Gosh, what a remarkably detailed set of profile fields

(secret agent to peace activist) As an exclusive promotion, we've created a new social network for the people we have under surveillance. Here's your login info.

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An invitation to trouble

Social network invitations: Rules for services and users

22 February, 2009
6
by Alexandra Samuel

I knew it was only so long before I'd succumb to the insidious, criminal forces that lurk everywhere online. Kleptomaniacal hacker, intrusive snoop, indy pornographer....I could take my pick of evils.

And tonight, I chose to become a spammer. Or more precisely, TripIt chose for me.

TripIt is a travel planning site that a number of my friends use to organize their business travel. I logged in tonight because I was planning to include it in a (positive) round-up post and wanted to take some of its features for a spin.

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Why can't I qwit you?

(Late at night, a man on the doorstep of a woman's house. The woman has just been awakened.) Hi! We've never met, but I noticed a few hours ago that you stopped following me on Twitter. Mind if I ask you why?

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Is Facebook trying to kill you?

What robots in popular culture tell us about our technology nightmares

6 February, 2008
3
by Alexandra Samuel

My new TV addiction is "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", which brings the Terminator franchise to the small screen. There's nothing like watching robots kick ass to make me think about the big issues in life, and this week's man-versus-machine showdown got me thinking about our widely-noted anxiety about the possibility of robot or cyborg takeover.

From Blade Runner to the Matrix, from Star Trek's Borg to Battlestar Galactica's Cylons, we've spent a lot of time imagining the day when our super-strong, super-smart robots get tired of vacuuming and decide they want to rule the world. You can even buy a witty and informative manual on How To Survive a Robot Uprising.

As a sci-fi fan and insomniac I've spent more than my share of hours staring at the ceiling and wondering whether our house is about to be stormed by robots who've made their escape from the Honda assembly line. That's given me an opportunity to consider a more immediate threat: Facebook. Not just Facebook, actually, but all the social networks and online communities to which we give our eyeballs, braincells, hearts and dollars. Could these online communities constitute the machine threat that sci-fi has taught us to anticipate?

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