Social networking and Treos on The Daily Show
For the love of the best “news” program on television, and the report-ending song “I’ve got a thousand friends on MySpace.” You know *anything* has social capital when it shows up on The Daily Show.
Demetri Martin, “Trendspotting Correspondent,” talks about social networking sites, and how if you don’t know what they are, you are “lame.” He talks specifically about Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster (which he says “got kinda gay” — apologies for the derogatory comment — so he decided he’d focus on MySpace).
So what do kids do on these sites? The reporter tells us they talk, about themselves, life, and pop culture. Social networking isn’t limited to online, and means that there’s constant connection and contact between you and your hundreds of (sometimes) anonymous friends. The guy even interviews Siva Vaidhyanathan (which is totally impressive), and, well, answers his phone in the middle of the interview, asking the caller, “Are they hot?”
When asked about some of the issues associated with this kind of social interaction, Demetri ran it down to Jon Stewart like this:
- Upside: Great way to meet people all over the world.
- Downside: They’re full of sexual preditors.
- Upside: They’re full of sexual prey.
Julianne Moore, in her interview after the segment, mentioned that maybe she could get the young guy from the segment to help with her Treo, because that’s what the young kids are doing, and she just can’t figure it out. This launched into a discussion between Jon and Julianne about gadgets, how the phone and camera seemed like an unlikely digital mating, and how Jon’s 19-month old son already has a Treo.
I’m sure the video will be on the Comedy Central site or on Motherload relatively soon. [Many thanks to Brian Smith for sending me the direct link to the segment video on Motherload; beware, you have to jump through annoying hoops installing new bits to view the video using Firefox. appended 2/17/06]
[Siva has posted a Firefox-friendly version of the clip on his blog. He's my hero. Many thanks to Wade Rockett for making me aware. appended 2/19/06]
Check it out, it’s entertaining.
Tags: checkitout
