My first email account was with Yahoo mail….and without revealing too much about my age, I think it might have been about 14 years ago. I’ve been faithful to the internet email provider ever since and was grateful when they removed the memory quota from email accounts. It means large attachments - from photos of loved ones scattered all over the globe to home videos can be emailed to me and it doesn’t cost me a penny or worse still a clogged up inbox to receive and open them.
Recently however I’ve been disappointed to find that Yahoo is trying to imitate Facebook with status updates. I mean really…aren’t Twitter and Facebook enough, must I really have to receive an update that some random bloke whose email address I happen to have is picking his nose as I'm having my breakfast and checking my email? Even more disturbing I received a recent update about my former boss – it said X has a new avatar - he is now wearing Grey Short Hair & High Forehead. Really? Really is this information of any use to me or any other human being on this planet apart from the owner of the stupid cartoon himself? FYI an avatar is a little cartoon image yahoo users can create of themselves - usually a lot more flattering than an actual owner but that's fair enough. We all like to embellish now and then. But to come back to my boss' new avatar, firstly I don’t know what his avatar looked like before in any event and my immediate reaction to this juicy 'news' read: dull yahoo update was of course it should have grey short hair and a high forehead because that is exactly what its owner looks like. How is this newsworthy?
What’s more people have taken to commenting on each other’s status updates. "'X' just had mushy peas and chips for dinner". Y will respond…"OMG, I love mushy peas, is it tasty?" Really people…really! Enough already with dissecting each minute detail of people and their dull lives. I have gotten used to Facebook – it serves its purpose, I get to keep in touch with my friends and get their support for things I’m doing and yes sometimes I do gloat about the latest holiday I'm going on or fab event I'm attending. As far as Twitter is concerned, the jury’s still out; I recognise that it can be useful for announcing breaking news although even this depends on you following interesting people with something to say but let’s face it if you wait a few seconds you’ll get the same news (this time verified) on most reliable networks anyway.
I draw the line at social networking on Yahoo however; I think it should be kept in its pure form – an email account. If you want me to know what is going on in your life then drop me a line. I don’t want to read your status update to find out you just had a baby. Let's all make it a goal to get a life by getting away from all these social networking tools and interacting with real people in real and meaningful ways.
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