September 24, 2008 • 16 mins
The U.S. intelligence community is creating a social networking site for spies -- and this is just one example of the growing field of niche social networks. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about specialized social networks.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Welcome to
the podcast. This is ancient time. I'm an editor in
(00:22):
How Stuff Works. With me, I've got agent a god
grows number. It's one of my writers. Nice. Okay, maybe
they don't get alright. You threw me off like a
a godrows numbers constant. Oh, well, you know I am.
I'm sorry. We've lost everyone but the hardcore science geeks. Yeah, well,
(00:45):
I'll tell you. My name is Chris Poulett. I'm an
editor here, and with me is Jonathan Strickling. Hey there.
And the reason I was doing the spy thing was
because we were talking about when we were coming up
with podcast ideas, this brand new thing that the US
government has called a space. It's a it's a network
for spies, not just not just a network and online network,
(01:07):
and not just an online network and online social network. Yeah,
this is going to be a classified classified That's why
it was in the news, right, classified social network for spies.
Not you know, it shouldn't laugh. We're you know, we
couldn't get on it. You know because we're not spies.
(01:28):
Do you know that the lead Seriously, you're making some
big SIPs right now, I could right now be repelling
into somebody's office. But yeah, this is this is a
US government project and they're supposed to it's supposed to
enable sharing of information between different agencies, so different spies
within those agencies, right, so you're going to be able
(01:50):
to connect and share what what the latest information is.
And this is actually a huge deal if if it's real.
I should say, we have a little bit of a
a small dose of skepticism here at how stuff works
about this, but it is kind of a huge deal
in the sense that traditionally a lot of these agencies
UM don't have a lot of interdepartmental uh communication between them.
(02:15):
I mean, they're they're actually some pretty uh interesting things
you can read in history, like the history of the
FBI or the history of the CIA, where you find
out that had one agency had the information another agency had,
than certain things could have been prevented or avoided or
um or perpetrators could have been caught faster. So it's
(02:35):
communications a big deal. I mean, how do you facilitate
communication between different agencies UM that by their very nature,
are not communicative because it's it's if you're a spy
and you talk a lot, you're not a very good spy,
are you. Well, they're they're spending five million dollars according
(02:56):
to the AP article I read about it, and a
pilot version is supposed to be going online this December,
and they're going to be adding more features over the
coming year. There's no word on whether Scrabulous will be
part of that, right or your favorite tune playing in
the background of your profile page, that's true. I bet
the James Bond theme is really popular. Yeah, yeah, that
(03:16):
and the man from Uncle Um. But yeah, that you
you bring up a good point. I mean, James Bond
is sort of not a good example because you know
he's out there, you know, some very smartly dressed uh,
you know, ordering martinis in a way that no one
else does. Uh. You know, he really stands in here,
(03:39):
and the bad guys always go, hey, you're James Bond.
I mean that just doesn't seem to to help you
stay anonymous. He's not Clandestine's sure, no, not so much.
That's good to tux though, you know that's true, But
so it'll be I guess we'll probably never know if
this is successful or not. At least if you know,
(04:01):
if it works, we won't know if it doesn't work. Everybody,
m it's it's. Some people have been kind of describing
this as sort of MySpace or Facebook for spies. Um.
Others say that, you know, that's that's probably going a
little too far. It's more like some sort of spy
wiki where people can share information and keep each other informed. Um.
(04:24):
I've got a concern about this particular endeavor. Yeah, it
turns out that stuff online isn't always safe. I hate that. Yeah,
all right, stop it, sit down and hold onto your hats. Um, yeah, it's.
There are these folks out there called hackers, and there
are a subset of them called crackers. And crackers like
(04:47):
to crack security. They like to find ways into places
they're not supposed to get into. Some of them just
go in to look around see how things work, and
you know, they're satisfied once their curiosity is has met,
and then they leave. U ER's are much more likely
to mess around once they get in there. You know,
they'll they'll start looking into secure files and learning information,
(05:10):
and some of them will even either use that kind
of ability to sabotage and endeavor or they'll decide to
steal information sell it to the highest bidder. I mean,
even if you're an independent cracker, that can happen. But
then think about it, the United States has got a
few countries that are not that um happy with us.
(05:32):
I mean, it's just true that their their countries out there. Yeah,
and even your friends often want to know what you're
really up to. So even someone who might be an
ally might say, you know, we really would like to
know what they know. So making an online social network
for spies, don't you think that would be a huge
incentive for these people to to try and zero in
(05:55):
target it and and infiltrate it. Yes, if it's if
it's real, right, then then it would be a very
desirable target. Yeah. And if it's not real, it would
be a very desirable target. Right. So here's uh, here's
Poulett's pet theory, which you know what sounds better and
better to me every day. Let's let's go into it.
(06:17):
I'll let you set it up. It's since you you
were the first one to talk to me about and
I was like, wow, that makes so much sense. I
can't believe that it didn't occur to me. Well, uh,
you know, in this case, a space might be more
aptly named bait space. Right, it's the online honey pot Yep,
it's the cheese on the mouse trap. Can we get
(06:37):
some more analogies? Thank you, I'm sure we could. But
if you get what we're saying, uh, it's it may
be a ruse to try to lure in uh enemies
of the state, to get them to to break in
and identify themselves in some way. It's a trap, right, exactly,
the old admiral at bar it's a trap. Yes, just
(06:59):
trade sit back to the origin and the and then
you've got the You've got your enemy of the state.
Right there you go. It's Um, that's a good theory.
I mean, I don't know that that's the case. It
may very well be this is all on the up
and up in a clandestine way, but the way sounds yeah,
because right, And I'm not going to hack into it,
no I have. I have no desire to get on
(07:22):
another government list. I hate that, I said another government list.
We'll let it that out. So, Okay. The interesting thing
about a space is that it's it's not going to
appeal to everyone. Even if you could get in, not
everyone would want to get in. And that's because it
is one of a growing number of social networks that
(07:43):
we think of as niche networks right, that cater to
a very specific audience, like catster, for example, or dogster. Yes,
let's please tell me about catster and dogster. Cat owners
and dog dog owners or you know a lot of
them portray themselves. I'm not sure if are playing some
elaborate cat and mouse game with your computer, but you
(08:04):
know you got fluffy online, you know, saying well, you know,
I like chasing mice and spending long mornings sleeping in
the sunlight, eating smelly fish yep, and licking my pause. Good, good, safe.
But yeah, not everybody's a cat or dog owner, so
(08:26):
you're not gonna And there are those of us who
are cat owners and dog owners who go, yeah, I
really don't need to create a profile from right. Do
you think do you think that catster has trolls that
are dogs entirely possible or or rodents you know, or
I don't know, But there are all kinds of things.
It's not just for you know. You might think, well,
(08:47):
that's kind of cute, and a little silly, but there
are all kinds of other things that that are you know,
a little more serious. Yeah, I actually I have one
that's kind of a There a lot that that's been
off from hobbies. It makes sense, you know, because you
have things like Facebook and my Space. They often have
groups where people can form a group and people who
are interested in the same thing can all kind of
connect to each other, sort of like the old used
(09:09):
net groups were back in the days of text, right.
But it's you know, since it's since it's not geared
specifically for that hobby, it you have just a sort
of a limited amount of things that you can do
on those sites. It just wasn't intended for that. So
that's why people go out and they'll they'll build a
niche site. Um one that I thought was really interesting,
you know what. It's so bizarre that I think this
is interesting because it's it's a hobby that I don't do.
(09:31):
I've got many friends who do this hobby, but I
never thought about picking it up myself. But it just
it's interesting to me that there's a social network for it.
It's Ravelry now ravelry that's spelled r A V E
L r y is an online social network dedicated to knitting,
really knitting. I was I was convinced it was going
(09:52):
to be about Maurice Ravel. No, sad, I'm sad to
to disappoint you there, No, but it's it's knitting. And
I've got some of friends who knit. We have a
couple of people here in the office who are fantastic knitters.
Um and uh nice because I'm just gonna let me
weave my tail. So but this is a very popular
(10:17):
social networking site. And only is it popular, they're very
very careful about who they let in. They want to
make sure it's people who are really who really are
enjoy the hobby and will commit, will contribute to the community.
I don't really want trolls making fun of your hobby,
and you don't you don't want someone just joining and
then just quitting because they're they're doing things like trading tips,
they're trading patterns, they're talking about their projects. So there's
(10:40):
a waiting list to get on this and and it's
a long waiting list. It's not and you can you
can actually submit your emails so that you can find
out occasionally where you are on the waiting list. Um,
it's uh, they take it very seriously, and you know
that might sound silly to someone who's who's not into
the hobby, but when you think about it, it really
(11:01):
means that you've built a solid community under you. So
I actually think that's quite admirable. I mean, you know,
I'm I'm honestly not making light of ravelry idea. Well,
they're they're all kinds of different social networks out there,
and you'll you'll find uh, almost anything, you know, based
(11:21):
on what your interest is. If you uh, if you
look around, you'll find something that's related to it. It
might be a niche group on an existing network like
high five or work it, or you know, some of
the others trying to mix in some others besides my
space and right for our friends and other countries who
don't use that them so much, um, but you know
(11:43):
you can. There's even a a news site called mashable
dot com that really focuses on social networking and social
networking issues and new kinds of sites and new technologies
behind it. A lot of sites are are WICKI centric,
you know, they're not. They're a little less social like
adding friends, but you do contribute to the greater body
(12:04):
of knowledge. Um, you know, Wikia dot com has all
kinds of different wikis that are created by fans of
TV shows and movies and different uh cultural phenomena that
that that people like to share bits and pieces of
trivia with one another and sort of build up something
because you know, there there may not be an existing
(12:25):
encyclopedia of knowledge about your favorite TV show, but you know,
people start going, oh wait, wait remember an episode six,
And so the fans can really get together and share
that information with one another, which is which is pretty
awesome because sometimes uh, you know, you may not have
your friends at work, or that the people you hang
out with, um normally may not be into the same
(12:46):
exact show or the exact same hobby as you. So
this is this is a good outlet. Yeah. And and
you can see social networking things popping up from other
sites that were not originally a social network site, like
the Internet Movie Database or chud is Cinematic Happenings under Development.
These are both you know, film sites, um, that have
had a community grow up around them and um, they've
(13:07):
really kind of embraced that whole social networking. Uh. Then
there are other niche sites Chris Parrello just recently launched
He's a He's a blogger in a television show host.
He recently launched geeks, which is for people who are
passionate about certain things, um like mostly tech and things
like that, but other subjects as well. And uh, my
favorite new one that I learned about is um Actually
(13:29):
the network isn't new, it's just new to me. Is
a small world dot net? Have you heard about this? Okay,
a small world dot net is for really affluent people.
It's invitation only. There are three thousand members are so,
uh to give you an idea of what kind of
site this is, They're one of their major advertisers that
(13:51):
puts ads on that site. Cartier. Really yeah, when I'm
saying affluent, I'm talking big Bucks. So we're talking the
American Express card holder, right, we we would be considered
in oka d which is not our kind, dear, that
would be where we fall in that. I don't think
I'll be invited into a Small World dot net at all.
(14:12):
I was gonna say anytime soon, but let's just be
honest here. Well, I was reading just the other day
that IBM is actually supporting social networking. It's created a
center called the IBM Center for Social Software. It's sort
of a I don't know, an incubator if you will,
for for social networks and social uh software. And that
(14:35):
just goes to show you how serious this is becoming.
And of course you have Google supporting open Social, which
is the whole idea about having one place to have
all your your information so that you can lug into
these different niche social networks without having to create a
profile every single time, because you might have three or
four different really strong interests and you want to belong
(14:58):
to these these different networks. But it does get a
little frustrating to create a profile all the time, you know,
over and over and over again. Well, I guess uh,
we could talk about these all day. There are literally
thousands of social networking sites on there. Definitely some of
them are are fully fledged like MySpace and Facebook, and
others are just sites that happen to have a message
board or forum or chat room or something like that. Um,
(15:21):
so rest assured if you have an interest someone out
there as a social network for you. I think it's
pretty safe to say. And and although boredom sometimes forces
us into you know, searching out social networks as we're
trying to find something to do with our time. Boredom
can do other things as well. Boredom can cause us
to search out things like social networking sites and games
and things like that. But it might actually cause you
(15:44):
to do something else. Um, I'm sorry, I was not
paying at Yeah, just kind of dripping off there. Well,
you might want to You might want to look into
that because we have a great article on the site
called Can You Die of Ordom? Written by Kristen Conger,
one of our colleagues here, and uh, I highly suggest
(16:05):
you read it because you know your life may depend
on it. It's nothing if if nothing else, it's something
you can do when you're bored. That's right. Yeah, if
you're bored, read that. That'll make you feel better. There
you go. Awesome. That's live right now on how stuff
works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
an email to podcasts at how stuff works dot com.
(16:31):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Welcome to
the podcast. This is ancient time. I'm an editor in
(00:22):
How Stuff Works. With me, I've got agent a god
grows number. It's one of my writers. Nice. Okay, maybe
they don't get alright. You threw me off like a
a godrows numbers constant. Oh, well, you know I am.
I'm sorry. We've lost everyone but the hardcore science geeks. Yeah, well,
(00:45):
I'll tell you. My name is Chris Poulett. I'm an
editor here, and with me is Jonathan Strickling. Hey there.
And the reason I was doing the spy thing was
because we were talking about when we were coming up
with podcast ideas, this brand new thing that the US
government has called a space. It's a it's a network
for spies, not just not just a network and online network,
(01:07):
and not just an online network and online social network. Yeah,
this is going to be a classified classified That's why
it was in the news, right, classified social network for spies.
Not you know, it shouldn't laugh. We're you know, we
couldn't get on it. You know because we're not spies.
(01:28):
Do you know that the lead Seriously, you're making some
big SIPs right now, I could right now be repelling
into somebody's office. But yeah, this is this is a
US government project and they're supposed to it's supposed to
enable sharing of information between different agencies, so different spies
within those agencies, right, so you're going to be able
(01:50):
to connect and share what what the latest information is.
And this is actually a huge deal if if it's real.
I should say, we have a little bit of a
a small dose of skepticism here at how stuff works
about this, but it is kind of a huge deal
in the sense that traditionally a lot of these agencies
UM don't have a lot of interdepartmental uh communication between them.
(02:15):
I mean, they're they're actually some pretty uh interesting things
you can read in history, like the history of the
FBI or the history of the CIA, where you find
out that had one agency had the information another agency had,
than certain things could have been prevented or avoided or
um or perpetrators could have been caught faster. So it's
(02:35):
communications a big deal. I mean, how do you facilitate
communication between different agencies UM that by their very nature,
are not communicative because it's it's if you're a spy
and you talk a lot, you're not a very good spy,
are you. Well, they're they're spending five million dollars according
(02:56):
to the AP article I read about it, and a
pilot version is supposed to be going online this December,
and they're going to be adding more features over the
coming year. There's no word on whether Scrabulous will be
part of that, right or your favorite tune playing in
the background of your profile page, that's true. I bet
the James Bond theme is really popular. Yeah, yeah, that
(03:16):
and the man from Uncle Um. But yeah, that you
you bring up a good point. I mean, James Bond
is sort of not a good example because you know
he's out there, you know, some very smartly dressed uh,
you know, ordering martinis in a way that no one
else does. Uh. You know, he really stands in here,
(03:39):
and the bad guys always go, hey, you're James Bond.
I mean that just doesn't seem to to help you
stay anonymous. He's not Clandestine's sure, no, not so much.
That's good to tux though, you know that's true, But
so it'll be I guess we'll probably never know if
this is successful or not. At least if you know,
(04:01):
if it works, we won't know if it doesn't work. Everybody,
m it's it's. Some people have been kind of describing
this as sort of MySpace or Facebook for spies. Um.
Others say that, you know, that's that's probably going a
little too far. It's more like some sort of spy
wiki where people can share information and keep each other informed. Um.
(04:24):
I've got a concern about this particular endeavor. Yeah, it
turns out that stuff online isn't always safe. I hate that. Yeah,
all right, stop it, sit down and hold onto your hats. Um, yeah, it's.
There are these folks out there called hackers, and there
are a subset of them called crackers. And crackers like
(04:47):
to crack security. They like to find ways into places
they're not supposed to get into. Some of them just
go in to look around see how things work, and
you know, they're satisfied once their curiosity is has met,
and then they leave. U ER's are much more likely
to mess around once they get in there. You know,
they'll they'll start looking into secure files and learning information,
(05:10):
and some of them will even either use that kind
of ability to sabotage and endeavor or they'll decide to
steal information sell it to the highest bidder. I mean,
even if you're an independent cracker, that can happen. But
then think about it, the United States has got a
few countries that are not that um happy with us.
(05:32):
I mean, it's just true that their their countries out there. Yeah,
and even your friends often want to know what you're
really up to. So even someone who might be an
ally might say, you know, we really would like to
know what they know. So making an online social network
for spies, don't you think that would be a huge
incentive for these people to to try and zero in
(05:55):
target it and and infiltrate it. Yes, if it's if
it's real, right, then then it would be a very
desirable target. Yeah. And if it's not real, it would
be a very desirable target. Right. So here's uh, here's
Poulett's pet theory, which you know what sounds better and
better to me every day. Let's let's go into it.
(06:17):
I'll let you set it up. It's since you you
were the first one to talk to me about and
I was like, wow, that makes so much sense. I
can't believe that it didn't occur to me. Well, uh,
you know, in this case, a space might be more
aptly named bait space. Right, it's the online honey pot Yep,
it's the cheese on the mouse trap. Can we get
(06:37):
some more analogies? Thank you, I'm sure we could. But
if you get what we're saying, uh, it's it may
be a ruse to try to lure in uh enemies
of the state, to get them to to break in
and identify themselves in some way. It's a trap, right, exactly,
the old admiral at bar it's a trap. Yes, just
(06:59):
trade sit back to the origin and the and then
you've got the You've got your enemy of the state.
Right there you go. It's Um, that's a good theory.
I mean, I don't know that that's the case. It
may very well be this is all on the up
and up in a clandestine way, but the way sounds yeah,
because right, And I'm not going to hack into it,
no I have. I have no desire to get on
(07:22):
another government list. I hate that, I said another government list.
We'll let it that out. So, Okay. The interesting thing
about a space is that it's it's not going to
appeal to everyone. Even if you could get in, not
everyone would want to get in. And that's because it
is one of a growing number of social networks that
(07:43):
we think of as niche networks right, that cater to
a very specific audience, like catster, for example, or dogster. Yes,
let's please tell me about catster and dogster. Cat owners
and dog dog owners or you know a lot of
them portray themselves. I'm not sure if are playing some
elaborate cat and mouse game with your computer, but you
(08:04):
know you got fluffy online, you know, saying well, you know,
I like chasing mice and spending long mornings sleeping in
the sunlight, eating smelly fish yep, and licking my pause. Good, good, safe.
But yeah, not everybody's a cat or dog owner, so
(08:26):
you're not gonna And there are those of us who
are cat owners and dog owners who go, yeah, I
really don't need to create a profile from right. Do
you think do you think that catster has trolls that
are dogs entirely possible or or rodents you know, or
I don't know, But there are all kinds of things.
It's not just for you know. You might think, well,
(08:47):
that's kind of cute, and a little silly, but there
are all kinds of other things that that are you know,
a little more serious. Yeah, I actually I have one
that's kind of a There a lot that that's been
off from hobbies. It makes sense, you know, because you
have things like Facebook and my Space. They often have
groups where people can form a group and people who
are interested in the same thing can all kind of
connect to each other, sort of like the old used
(09:09):
net groups were back in the days of text, right.
But it's you know, since it's since it's not geared
specifically for that hobby, it you have just a sort
of a limited amount of things that you can do
on those sites. It just wasn't intended for that. So
that's why people go out and they'll they'll build a
niche site. Um one that I thought was really interesting,
you know what. It's so bizarre that I think this
is interesting because it's it's a hobby that I don't do.
(09:31):
I've got many friends who do this hobby, but I
never thought about picking it up myself. But it just
it's interesting to me that there's a social network for it.
It's Ravelry now ravelry that's spelled r A V E
L r y is an online social network dedicated to knitting,
really knitting. I was I was convinced it was going
(09:52):
to be about Maurice Ravel. No, sad, I'm sad to
to disappoint you there, No, but it's it's knitting. And
I've got some of friends who knit. We have a
couple of people here in the office who are fantastic knitters.
Um and uh nice because I'm just gonna let me
weave my tail. So but this is a very popular
(10:17):
social networking site. And only is it popular, they're very
very careful about who they let in. They want to
make sure it's people who are really who really are
enjoy the hobby and will commit, will contribute to the community.
I don't really want trolls making fun of your hobby,
and you don't you don't want someone just joining and
then just quitting because they're they're doing things like trading tips,
they're trading patterns, they're talking about their projects. So there's
(10:40):
a waiting list to get on this and and it's
a long waiting list. It's not and you can you
can actually submit your emails so that you can find
out occasionally where you are on the waiting list. Um,
it's uh, they take it very seriously, and you know
that might sound silly to someone who's who's not into
the hobby, but when you think about it, it really
(11:01):
means that you've built a solid community under you. So
I actually think that's quite admirable. I mean, you know,
I'm I'm honestly not making light of ravelry idea. Well,
they're they're all kinds of different social networks out there,
and you'll you'll find uh, almost anything, you know, based
(11:21):
on what your interest is. If you uh, if you
look around, you'll find something that's related to it. It
might be a niche group on an existing network like
high five or work it, or you know, some of
the others trying to mix in some others besides my
space and right for our friends and other countries who
don't use that them so much, um, but you know
(11:43):
you can. There's even a a news site called mashable
dot com that really focuses on social networking and social
networking issues and new kinds of sites and new technologies
behind it. A lot of sites are are WICKI centric,
you know, they're not. They're a little less social like
adding friends, but you do contribute to the greater body
(12:04):
of knowledge. Um, you know, Wikia dot com has all
kinds of different wikis that are created by fans of
TV shows and movies and different uh cultural phenomena that
that that people like to share bits and pieces of
trivia with one another and sort of build up something
because you know, there there may not be an existing
(12:25):
encyclopedia of knowledge about your favorite TV show, but you know,
people start going, oh wait, wait remember an episode six,
And so the fans can really get together and share
that information with one another, which is which is pretty
awesome because sometimes uh, you know, you may not have
your friends at work, or that the people you hang
out with, um normally may not be into the same
(12:46):
exact show or the exact same hobby as you. So
this is this is a good outlet. Yeah. And and
you can see social networking things popping up from other
sites that were not originally a social network site, like
the Internet Movie Database or chud is Cinematic Happenings under Development.
These are both you know, film sites, um, that have
had a community grow up around them and um, they've
(13:07):
really kind of embraced that whole social networking. Uh. Then
there are other niche sites Chris Parrello just recently launched
He's a He's a blogger in a television show host.
He recently launched geeks, which is for people who are
passionate about certain things, um like mostly tech and things
like that, but other subjects as well. And uh, my
favorite new one that I learned about is um Actually
(13:29):
the network isn't new, it's just new to me. Is
a small world dot net? Have you heard about this? Okay,
a small world dot net is for really affluent people.
It's invitation only. There are three thousand members are so,
uh to give you an idea of what kind of
site this is, They're one of their major advertisers that
(13:51):
puts ads on that site. Cartier. Really yeah, when I'm
saying affluent, I'm talking big Bucks. So we're talking the
American Express card holder, right, we we would be considered
in oka d which is not our kind, dear, that
would be where we fall in that. I don't think
I'll be invited into a Small World dot net at all.
(14:12):
I was gonna say anytime soon, but let's just be
honest here. Well, I was reading just the other day
that IBM is actually supporting social networking. It's created a
center called the IBM Center for Social Software. It's sort
of a I don't know, an incubator if you will,
for for social networks and social uh software. And that
(14:35):
just goes to show you how serious this is becoming.
And of course you have Google supporting open Social, which
is the whole idea about having one place to have
all your your information so that you can lug into
these different niche social networks without having to create a
profile every single time, because you might have three or
four different really strong interests and you want to belong
(14:58):
to these these different networks. But it does get a
little frustrating to create a profile all the time, you know,
over and over and over again. Well, I guess uh,
we could talk about these all day. There are literally
thousands of social networking sites on there. Definitely some of
them are are fully fledged like MySpace and Facebook, and
others are just sites that happen to have a message
board or forum or chat room or something like that. Um,
(15:21):
so rest assured if you have an interest someone out
there as a social network for you. I think it's
pretty safe to say. And and although boredom sometimes forces
us into you know, searching out social networks as we're
trying to find something to do with our time. Boredom
can do other things as well. Boredom can cause us
to search out things like social networking sites and games
and things like that. But it might actually cause you
(15:44):
to do something else. Um, I'm sorry, I was not
paying at Yeah, just kind of dripping off there. Well,
you might want to You might want to look into
that because we have a great article on the site
called Can You Die of Ordom? Written by Kristen Conger,
one of our colleagues here, and uh, I highly suggest
(16:05):
you read it because you know your life may depend
on it. It's nothing if if nothing else, it's something
you can do when you're bored. That's right. Yeah, if
you're bored, read that. That'll make you feel better. There
you go. Awesome. That's live right now on how stuff
works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send
an email to podcasts at how stuff works dot com.
(16:31):
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Karah Preiss
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