bryan stratton dot com

HuffPo Goes (Anti?) Social

Posted in Blog Posts by Bryan Stratton on August 17, 2009

Hmm… the Huffington Post has just launched a “Social News” Facebook app, with the goal of linking you up with other HuffPo-reading friends so you can “dive deeper into the stories you like best.”

As a good Portland lefty, I check out HuffPo pretty regularly, but I’m not sure I’ll be adding this one. Not only do I dislike adding Facebook apps in general (I think that they muck up FB’s clean design and make it more like MySpace, which I fled some time ago), I think this runs the risk of turning Facebook into even more of an echo chamber than it already is.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Riva Richmond’s New York Times article, “Does Social Networking Breed Social Division?” and consider whether HuffPo’s well-intentioned app might be paving a road to somewhere we don’t want to wind up.

One Response

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  1. Todd said, on August 17, 2009 at 8:42 PM

    I agree. It doesn’t advance our collective ability to be productive or create solutions by just hanging out with those who think the same way.


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