Saturday, September 14, 2013

Can you connect to social networks on a smart TV?

As its inauguration in 2004, ‘Facebook’ has made it as an enormous success story, albeit not one without controversy. Plenty of controversy. But I am not here to talk about that. I am here to let you know a little about social networking and why it is a welcome addition to any Smart TV.


In many ways taking off through the now elapsed ‘Myspace’ and the excess of imitators it left in its wake, Facebook emerged as champion of the social networks, (until the next one comes along, that is). Facebook has conquered the Internet using a smart exploitation of these three ever-reliable concepts: 


1)         People love talking about other people, particularly secretly.


2)         Folks are exceedingly fond of and poking their noses into the lifestyles of other people.


3)         People’s unquenchable self attention, which, when fuelled by Facebook, is narcissism on steroids.


Facebook is the amazing tool and one that has quickly tailored itself to smart phones, portable devices and now, even Television. Ultimately, Myspace was the cumbersome Neanderthal, who, even though being popular, smarter and more powerful than Homo Sapiens, succumbed to that receding ice age somewhat speedily, failing to adapt to a world he could no longer recognize. Facebook, conversely, was the eventual Cro Magnon victor, shaking in a cave throughout Neanderthal’s time, he emerged over on the warm plains of the modern-day and, either directly or indirectly, eradicated his rival before moving within the altering technology and times, to the point he might sit at his writing table and update his status several times a day.


‘Twitter’ is a particularly small site that acts sort of a miniature Facebook. Users have a number of words to broadcast their actions, opinion and/or feelings to a world that typically doesn’t care unless its worried that it is being cheated on. However, while celebrated people on Facebook tend to not update their pages, on Twitter the user can follow (and sometimes communicate with) the behavior of Hollywood luminaries, celebrities, sports stars and other notable individuals, who are often surprisingly frank about their day by day lives.


Facebook and Twitter are both big ones, but there’s others, more than I can add up that follow a similar basic model but specialise in a different area (LinkedIn, for example, deals with business interactions a lot more than personal ones). Many websites co-exist with Facebook nowadays, feeding off their scraps like remoras on the back of the Tiger Shark. With most online content, there’s even an choice to ‘Like’ it, consequently adding it to your Facebook page (when you look carefully at this page, you will almost definitely find one, which serves to highlight just how all-encompassing Facebook’s presence is.


Smart TV, recognising the ubiquity of such sites plus the emphasis that modern online business places on this ubiquity, has Facebook, Twitter (and other social network websites) available for download. This means that you might have full (or nearly full) access to your Facebook account and update it without maybe going to the computer. Last night, I had to update my own Facebook to say that I was watching, for what needs to be the hundredth time, the movie ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ I could have simply done it throughout a tea break in the movie itself instead of aiming to do it and ultimately forgetting, as I essentially did.


When you’re wondering how folks are doing and you need up-to-the-minute advice, Facebook is usually the place to go. Facebook the site is free to use, is the Smart TV app at time of writing and is an excellent comms tool, especially for people you do not actually know that well. These days, people alter their mobile numbers every point three of a second, so Facebook remains one reliable way to ensure you can consistantly keep in touch.  I like to think of it as a really poorly written newspaper, where the headlines are a little sunnier, a great deal less biased and contain individuals I essentially give a damn about.  



Can you connect to social networks on a smart TV?

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