Social networking sites like Friendster.com and MySpace.com provide online meeting places to exchange information, meet new friends or check up on old exes. The free sites have drawn millions of users, mostly younger people, who are particularly prized by advertisers and marketers. When Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox News and dozens of other media outlets, acquired MySpace, local author, designer and provocateur Scott Ritcher decided to start his own independent networking site, called EggFly. Ritcher hopes the site (www.eggfly.com) will be an “online democracy” that reflects the interests of its users, not corporate owners.
Why did you become interested in social networking sites and why have they been so popular?
I got into them a few years ago through Friendster, and like a lot of people I thought it was fascinating to see how people are connected. It was fun to come across people you hadn’t seen in years or might have only met a couple of times.
Why is it important for people to be aware of media ownership?
We have such a small number of entities controlling the vast majority of news and entertainment outlets. These are major conglomerates, and especially in news, these companies’ interests are always going to be represented. Take Fox News, for example. Its presentation of news and politics is skewed to a certain point of view. So it’s important that there be independent voices.
But aren’t social sites just for fun?
They are primarily for fun — they’re a way to goof off at work. But when sites like MySpace or Friendster are taken over by corporate interests, it’s just one more area where those interests take hold in our lives. It’s also important to remember that these sites have tremendous amounts of personal information on them, and people don’t know how that information is going to be used.
Where is EggFly in its development and where would you like it to go?
It’s growing steadily, with between 25 and 100 new users a day, primarily through word of mouth. It’s another fun, free thing in this world, so it’s already a success.
