Some thoughts on Bebo

Well here is what is up with the previous post.

I write from home, and, just like I did in high school and then in college, I write best with some background hum. Just a little buzz. Animal Planet's Meercat Manor is my current preference. Nice neutral color palette, not too much action, kindly narration. No comments please.

The other morning, I had The View on and listened half-attentively to a community development exec from AOL talk about "lifestreaming," social media in general and Bebo in particular. (I looked for a link on The View's Web site, but can't find one to insert here. Apologies.)

Anyway, I decided that my self-inflicted assignment of the day would be to get into the Bebo community, troll around, get immersed and form an opinion.

First of all, Bebo is an AOL community. I was prompted to log in with my aol screenname and password. Then Bebo wants to immediately grab everyone from my AOL address book and start sending out invitations. Push my social engagements. I hate that. SKIP. (AOL ... my brian is screaming bias with respect to the little TV chat that got me here in the first place.)

And this is the weird thing. I am already on Bebo. I set up a profile over a year ago, uploaded photos, inserted links to my blog, created the little creek that was to grow and feed my "lifestream."

And then I forgot about it.

So what does that say? I was uninspired. Rubbed just a little wrong way. The concept that one Website will open and insist upon my passwords to present my emails from multiple providers (AOL, gmail, yahoo) ... grab up all my friends ... urge me to post something thought provoking and chide me for being "camera shy ..."

Well. I will manage my own life, streaming or trickling or roiling like the rapids.