I don't know about you, but when I get really old, the last thing I want is a social network named after French novelist Marcel Proust asking me a bunch of questions designed to create an online repository of my remembrances of things past.
©Proust.com home page
That's the idea behind Proust.com, a social network with a journaling service launched this week by IAC/Interactive Corp, owner of Match.com, Ask.com, and other online properties.
The site declares on its home page, "Proust.com is a place for families and close friends to share the stuff that really matters. Proust is a private place to capture our life stories, thoughts, and aspirations to spark meaningful conversations about who we are."
Media attention has been fairly superficial and doesn't much question who would want to use Proust or why:
- TheNextWeb called it a place to save your memories.
- Fast Company said the "real secret sauce" of Proust is the "various ways it enables users to tell their story."
- New York Post called it a "Facebook for the elderly-" as if the "elderly" weren't on Facebook with everyone else and needed their own, dumbed down hangout.
Facebook strikes me as being all about about real-time experiences, whereas Proust.com seems focused on times gone by. And the whole idea of a social network revolving around memories just seems kind of silly.
But what do you think?
Wait till you’re seventy and see if you don’t cherish a chance to chew the fat with people of a similar age who love a little time to revel in nostalgia. Now that’s the sort of thing you don’t get on Facebook because of the constant interruptions, the flashy instant appeal attitude of the site, the superficiality of it all, and mainly the ghastly and phony ‘friends’ you can’t avoid accumulating.
I think it can very well catch on with the older generation. It is wonderful to share past memories with your peers. You can reminisce much better with those who have lived through the same things as you did. I just think it can become big.
people taht want to leave info and stories for their grandchildren to know about them will use a site like this.
I rarely post comments, if ever, though lately I’m all too put off by proper media outlets incessantly injecting their opinion into reports–be it for better or worse. Do us lot a favour: One tall order of the skinny, a side of the opportunity to judge for ourselves, and do hold the writers-opinion.