Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Couch Surfing....


Seems that most of my students were once on Myspace. Now they seem to have migrated to Facebook. Now I hear about something called Couch Surfing. The name brings up a different picture than what I now know.

The whole concept of Couch Surfing is interesting and I can see how meeting people and hosting can have it's benefits. I am not really sure if it is actually something I would "use", but it really would depend on the situation and person.

Looked around the site, looked at other profiles, photos, links, etc... The statistics are interesting- how many Couch Surfers there are, how many Countries are represented and how many positive experiences are documented. I can only imagine the statistics associated with Myspace and / or Facebook.

Couch Surfing is definitely different than Facebook. It seems to have more open-minded, artistic influence than that seen on FB. Maybe even an Earthy aura to it. FB on the other hand.... has everything you can imagine. And then some.

Since I am such a visual person, I had to take a look at the photos I saw posted on the profiles I looked at. Well, in CS, they were less, hmmmm, "talk worthy". I did not see the pictures of the person drunk and passed out on the floor or the person doing things that their mother would not really approve of. Wonder why that is?

The picture thing seems to be a big difference between the two applications, but then again, you would think that it should be. How would you like to be asked to host the town's drunkin, idiot. Yes, they are coming to your town and want to stay at your place for 3 days. Naturally, it's a Thursday (since weekends start here), Friday and Saturday night. Facebook on the other hand can and does have everything for profile pictures. Maybe it's due to originally being a student thing. Mind you everyone and their mother can now have a FB profile.

3 comments:

  1. Good point about the difference of pictures. I agree with you that there is something artistic and Earthy about CS.

    Speaking of pictures, love the guy 'surfing' with the couch.

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  2. Since I did not have the time to take my own photo...... lol I was lucky to find one for the posting.

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  3. I agree that Facebook and Couchsurfing are totally different. On FaceBook, I know everyone on my facebook friends roll. Most of them are high school and college buddies. Were my boss and students not also on my Facebook account, I would be more apt to post inappropriate comments and old party pictures.

    With CouchSurfing, I know very few people, and I am trying to get those people to let me stay at their houses then I'm traveling. Of course I am going to be more selective about what I put on CouchSurfing.

    Facebook is very internet focused. CouchSurfing attempts to bridge the gap between internet and real world.

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