"You're not on Facebook yet?" one of my friends asked me (again). This was a friend with whom our MySpace correspondence has done the relationship wonders. And that probably rings true for most of my relationships I maintain via the "social networking" profile I already have.I've got one time-suck as it is, so another one seems, well, kind of retarded.
Especially since Radar Magazine recently released their their slightly scientific list of the most overrated people, places and things. Facebook placed 28th. Radar's explanation:
"Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg is the new prince of Silicon Valley. Traffic disclosures from his social networking site—30 million users, tripling in popularity every year—have analysts swooning over a rumored IPO (some have valued the company at up to $10 billion). But even as the site positions itself as a one-stop portal for all your Internet needs, it's still unclear whether it will become the next Google—or the next Friendster. Facebook's banner ads have an abysmally low click-through rate, and most of the "applications" under its platform have fizzled. The few that haven't will surely wither if the company starts charging for them. We suggest Zuck unload his billion-dollar baby while he still can."
The following is their list and my votes of agreement/disagreement in parentheses:
1. Posh and Becks (very overrated)
2. Cupcakes (somewhat overrated)
3. The miracle of Botox (definitely overrated)
4. Brad Pitt (underrated, as an actor)
5. Sexual predators (overrated)
6. Oprah's heart (way overrated)
7. Sex with virgins (way, way overrated—unless you're a virgin too, in which case it's a different story)
8. Going to Mars (somewhat overrated)
9. Ballet flats (indifferent)
10. Cocaine (indifferent)
11. The Nintendo WWII, as exercise equipment (pretty overrated)
12. The cult of Stephen Colbert (not overrated)
13. Pandas (indifferent)
14. Tom Ford (overrated)
15. Keira Knightley (underrated, as an actress)
16. Steroid testing (underrated)
17. Jeans (underrated)
18. China, as economic threat (way underrated)
19. Rupert Murdoch, as arch-conservative villain (underrated)
20. America Ferrera's looks (underrated)
21. The Swiffer (indifferent)
22. Pilates (overrated)
23. Frank Gehry (indifferent)
24. Anderson Cooper (indifferent)
25. The Dalai Lama (slightly overrated)
26. Grey's Anatomy (very overrated)
27. Jake Gyllenhaal (very, very overrated)
28. Facebook (see above)
29. Soybeans (overrated)
30. Diane Sawyer (overrated)
31. Trader Joe's (underrated)
32. "Smart" superhero movies (ever-so-slightly overrated)
33. Andy Samberg (slightly overrated)
34. Genius (???)
35. J.J. Abrams (pretty overrated)
36. Vitamins (overrated)
37. Death tolls, as predicated by American media outlets (yeah, admittedly overrated)
38. Annie Leibovitz (overrated)
39. Winning an Oscar, as career boost (definitely overrated)
40. Pinkberry (sounds overrated)
41. Ryan McGinley (sounds overrated)
42. Twitter (overrated)
43. Coming out (depending who's doing it: with celebrities, it's overrated; with people not in the public eye, indifferent)
44. Cats (indifferent)
ALSO:
Blogging (indifferent)
Ronald Reagan (most overrated president of all time ... for now)
Keith Olbermann (admittedly, pretty overrated)
Young male Jewish novelists (yeah, pretty overrated)
Steve Carell (indifferent, but getting to be pretty overrated)
Pomegranate juice (indifferent)
Conan O'Brien (underrated—Leno can't leave soon enough)
Tim Gunn (overrated)
Croatia (indifferent)
Interesting facial hair (overrated)
Justin Timberlake (way overrated)
Howard Stern as First Amendment hero (somewhat overrated—tired act, but he has very good points)
Jim from The Office (getting to be pretty overrated)
Elizabeth Edwards (indifferent)
This American Life (underrated)
User-generated content (indifferent)
