Show Me Yours and I'll Show You Mine Society?

   Reading Chapter Five I Care More about What My Neighbor Thinks Than What Google Thinks really hit home the concept of transparency in the social media age. I had never considered the idea that some of my contacts may be making purchasing decisions based upon reviews or status updates that I have posted. Maybe I never considered the thought because I don't typically brag about new items that I've bought, and therein lies my problem with this chapter.
   Much of Qualman's argument relies on bloggers, Facebookers, Twitter users, etc freely sharing every single moment of their lives. I mean seriously, I have never seen any of my friends post about an awesome new car seat that they just bought, but this is the backbone of his theory. Agreed, there are some who use social media simply to brag about their lives (see Chapter Three Social Media = Braggadocian Behavior) but I have found that most people, or at least the ones I socialize with, simply write about the stresses of their workday or what they plan on making for dinner. Would a friend bragging about a great new car, tablet, or video game influence my decisions when it comes time to buy these items? Not really. I would probably read what they had said, but wouldn't base my decision solely on their experiences because everyone is different and may not have the same requirements that I'm looking for in a product. A perfect example of this is cars-I know several people who have recently bought a new Subaru and love them. Yes, yes, I understand that they get great gas mileage, go well in the snow, and look sporty (to you, anyway), but I happen to think that they look generic and are ugly. So really, it doesn't matter what features are included or incentives are thrown my way because I would never be caught dead in one of these vehicles. What's fun and sporty to some is ugly and boring to others.

    Further on in the chapter the author discusses people using social media to post medical questions and seek advice. This is beyond stupid and dangerous. As a medical professional I can tell you that each and every person is different and will experience unique signs/symptoms. Never in a million years would I trust advice typed onto Yahoo answers as reliable simply because someone swears that they know what they're talking about.
    The only part of Qualman's chapter that I agreed with is the possible marketing switch with e-readers. As a user of a kindle, I don't think that I would find it annoying to suddenly find hyperlinks within texts. Referring to Bangladesh and being able to locate it on a map with the touch of a finger might be incredibly helpful. I know while reading The DaVinci Code it would have been really nice to be able to visualize the locations mentioned throughout the story. 
   I understand what the author was trying to prove when writing this chapter, that social media sites are becoming more relevant that word of mouth adverstising, but I completely disagree with his basis for this theory. In order for his ideal to work, social media users must be willing to divulge every detail of their lives and put it out there for all to see. Maybe I'm strange, but the more I learn about social media, the more introverted I become.