And now it begins

I am fascinated by the Christmas advertising this year and all the references to the social media networks. Seems as though corporate America caught the bug and now won't let go until we are all friends with every major retailer on the planet.

Speaking last week with a friend of mine who is in the Internet marketing business, he said he advises everyone to stay away from Facebook, Twitter, etc. I asked him, then, what should replace the instant communication that social networking provides? "Good question," he said as he returned to his job as a network administrator. It's a good thing he's not on the marketing side.

However, this guy is smart - really, really smart - when it comes to computers. And with the Facebook hacking that's been going on of late, I have to wonder if maybe he's right. It's up to us, however, to provide the platform. Anybody got any ideas?