If there’s one thing I hate (besides roller backpacks), it’s mySpace.  From the seizure inducing madness that comprises 99% of people’s profiles to the guaranteed drama-enhancing effects of your current girlfriend seeing a ‘what’s up’ from some *other* girl in your comments (oh SNAP indeed), it’s just ridiculous to me.  (note: yes, Urban Monarch has a mySpace profile, but it’s purely a promotional vehicle for the site, nothing more.)  Beyond all that though, the mere concept itself is an exercise in ego masturbation the likes of which the world has never seen. 

With the advent of things like Twitter and other services contributing to the “narcissystem” it’s not gonna be long until people can track each piece of food’s passage through your digestive tract. 

The Houston Chronicle has an insightful story lamenting this disturbing trend.

On its surface, Twitter forces you to make an obnoxious presumption: That anyone will care enough about what you’re doing to go to this page and look at it regularly. However, your pearls of minutiae can be delivered to others via IM or RSS, saving your hordes of fans the trouble of clicking a link or typing in a Web address. Thank heaven for technology, eh?

The author goes so far as to feature 4 actual twittered comments which were appearing at the time he wrote the article:

librarianaaron @Mer do you live right in Northfield, or are you back in the hollers? Either way, Rte 12 and the access road are beautiful in the spring

rosevibe wishing I could get some decent strength painkillers off prescription.

michmarch Giving Sandy a hard time about his studying and he’s giving me one because I AM A BAD GIRL! I deserve it. LOL

JonnieJerko Hummus and lavash bread for lunch. Yogurt covered raisins for dessert. Maybe I’m a hippie after all? NOOOOOOOOOO.

It also talks about how the lack of context in these apparently casual details can cause serious trouble depending on the audience.

Just ask Steve Rubel, considered one of the gurus of blogging in public relations. He recently mentioned via Twitter that he throws away the complimentary copy he receives of PC Magazine, implying he does so without ever glancing in its pages. What he didn’t realize is that the magazine’s executive editor, Jim Louderback, saw the item. Louderback then mused in a guest editorial on a PR blog called Strumpette (www.strumpette.com) that perhaps his magazine should boycott the Edelman PR firm, Rubel’s employer.

Considering the fact that ‘once it’s ON the internet, it’s never OFF the internet’ the slippery slope of the “Narcissystem” is a frightening one indeed.

Read the whole article at the Houston Chronicle

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