Why a social Digg is a waste of time

I joined Digg about three years ago. Before that, I used it only for it's intended purpose: a way to find good Web links. I figured someone was generating those links, but I didn't want to know who they were.

Once, I interviewed the founder of Digg on the roof of their building. My buddy took the pictures, and they turned out okay. They had really amazing black tea there, too. Wow. I knew the site was special back then, and it still is.

I have to say, Digg's growth has been phenomenal and hats off to the guys and gals who built the interface. I love how you can click the Digg link and it magically says Dugg. It's cool how, when you add a friend, they just get added without a lot of fanfare. Pre-friend to new friend! Some of the links are really amazing, too.

But, in the silicon jungle, where the definition of friend has now eroded into obsolescence, I just can't bring myself to invite people from my Gmail contacts list again. I have gone through the steps six times now, but my hand has frozen as it hovered over the small Friend link with the plus sign next to people that I can't say I know personally, have ever met, or would even like if I did meet them.

I miss the days when there were power users on Digg who did all of the hard work and let us mindless drones benefit from their labor. Now, when I visit Digg, I feel like I have to contribute part of my brainpower that I have already promised to Facebook and Twitter. How social do I need to be?

See, I had no qualms about adding my contacts to Facebook and Twitter. Happily, I would say. Mildly jazzed up about it. There was some small joy on that day I will tell you. I was basically saying, come on over to my house and we'll share some digital stuff! I have some amazing Banff pictures I stole from someone that you should check out right now because they are cool! It was a little like sharing a part of my world. I now know what a PR rep at Honda looks like after working with her for, I'm not sure, eight years or so. I have an editor that I could have sworn was about 50 years old and is probably more like 22. It is getting me connected, it's working.

So why do I think Digg is a waste of time?

I'm having trouble getting excited about seeing what other sites people have visited. I know, this is all old news. See, if it was new news, it would get Dugg, or maybe Digged or Dugged. I'm an old-time Digg user who is late to the social party -- sort of disinterested and tepidly perturbed by all the social fanfare.

I get Twitter. I can see what people are doing, and I can search through what they have done and compare notes. I can RSS that sucker to death and have it feed every small Internet child I have birthed. Fark if I can't get that thing humming pretty good, and I only have 36 followers. Imagine what I could do with 50! Why, I could probably tweet myself silly if I really tried hard enough.

And I get Facebook, even though I took a break for a while and closed my account last year. I had a few high school kids I know in real life make fun of me for friending them and that was embarrassing. But it's all hooked up with RSS feeds. In fact, hey Facebook friends! Rock on, this posted automatically.

But then I started really messing around with Digg. I'm absolutely sure it automates everything in some crazy fashion, but I am having trouble caring. My RSS reader has 100 links I have yet to click on today. There is a lot of really important news waiting for me to find on Digg, it is all literally just a click away, but then that's kind of it. It reminds me a date I went on in college where I got really pumped up about going somewhere and then we sat in a car and decided that we had nothing in common.

I can't really bring myself to get into Digg socially because the payoff is that I get to use the Internet even more than I do now, and mine a contacts list that has already been thoroughly abused. Here's my main issue: I find a hundred interesting links per day, but I don't think they are so amazing that I want it to be the basis of my friendship with people.

Here's an example. I know that my RSS reader is going to send me some great links. I coudl use WebbAlert and be happy. Real friends send me links, and I see them at my favorite sites. And I look at Digg every day. But when I think about getting social on Digg, it makes me feel a little light headed.

Why? While surfing through a lot of links looking for more friends, trying to work up some repertoire with them, I realized that my social connection well can only handle Twitter and Facebook. I can't be actively engaged with Web links and the people who post them. And I also can't chew the fat with MySpace and Friendster users who I also don't know very well, either. Reddit and StumbleUpon, I may have time for you, I'm not sure. (It's sort of weird that Reddit is owned by Wired, I think. More on that in another post.) But who knows? It turns out, I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to link sharing, which is probably not a good thing considering this post itself is a link, and I'm not sure what else I am capable of being a curmudgeon about.

My issue is not with Digg, and Kevin Rose is a great guy. My issue is with socializing links. I see a few solutions: a) Make Digg into a social network where you share much more than links, or b) make link sharing something you only do within real social nets, with help from Digg. Let's see which way they go, but I'm not sure anything will change anytime soon.

What do you think? Don't hold anything back in comments.