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October 16, 2007
Antisocial Networking: EnemyBook and Snubster
Back when Friendster was all the rage, parody sites like Enemyster and Introvertster quickly popped up. Introvertster promised to keep you insulated from a deluge of marginal friend requests:
Billing itself as "the new way to get rid of people," Introvertster promises to repel e-mails, e-invites, and instant-messages sent by everyone "from lonely friends to old chums from high school looking to wax nostalgic...."Alas, Introvertster doesn't actually do anything: [it was] merely making the point that true conviviality is something best pursued f2f [face to face], as they say online.
The new social networking behemoth, Facebook, has a more open platform, so people can use enemy-designating "apps" within it:
With Snubster, you can put people "On Notice," give them an opportunity to redeem themselves, set a deadline, and if they fail to clean up their act, list them as "Dead to Me." Bryant Choung, 26, a software engineer in Washington, D.C., who created the program, said he was bothered that Facebook had become little more than an online popularity contest and designed Snubster to provide "a backlash against the ridiculous phenomenon that was social networking."It's all fun and games till somebody gets sued:
Last month, Choung received a request from a man to remove a snub made by someone he was suing. At first, Choung told him to contact the person directly so they could resolve it on their own. But after a few rounds of e-mails, Choung decided removing the snub was the easiest way not to be involved.
Dan's new book on The Future of Reputation discusses the Facebook newsfeed, which notifies people about actions taken by Facebook friends (including, potentially, the decision to "de-friend" someone). Solove critiques it from a privacy perspective, but perhaps people have a right to be notified when they are put on someone's "Enemybook," since it "allows Facebook users to add enemies who are not their friends. [Only people who are already friends receive notification when they are added to the enemy list. Enemies you have never liked never find out about your wrath."
It all reminds me of a book on the multiple manifestations of schadenfreude called When Bad Things Happen to Other People. Perhaps that "elegant and readable meditation on the significance of the pleasure we take in the spectacle afforded by the misfortures of others" should be required reading for anyone about to join an anti-social networking site.
Posted by Frank Pasquale at October 16, 2007 09:44 AM
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