Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Reppin' regional pride

Pardon the geek post, but a recent Twitter conversation has the wheels a churnin'. Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook fame, recently posted an open letter in which he detailed the impending changes coming to Facebook, namely the removal of regional networks. After a bit of tweeting between my good friends and social media nerds, Patrick teased that regional pride on the Internet is a bit outdated. Now, I'm not sure if it's my general position as an all-around sentimental fool, but I'll be honest, I like regional networks on Facebook. Not that I find them particularly useful, but there's something interesting about tagging yourself to a particular domain. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm just a small-town, Southern girl at heart with a true understanding of the benefits of a "community" in all sense of the word (online and off) or maybe it's the fact that as a PR professional, with experience in community relations, I quickly become passionate about my surrounding community, always searching for what makes Jacksonville/Orlando/D.C. unique.

But as social media, and the World Wide Web in general, develops we become connected with one another via niche online outlets, rather than distinct regional communities. So ultimately, Patrick poses a great question: What is the use of physical, regional networks when the vastness of the Internet is our new domain?




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree - most times I hate when they make changes to FB because 1) I have to learn to do things in a new way 2) the old way is usually better and easier!

Blackeyed Susan said...

I really liked being in the "Southern Georgia" and "Georgia Southern" networks haha But one time I changed to the New York network to see Hailey Glassman's (of Jon and Kate notoriety) open profile. sigh. I love facebook.