While cruising on Facebook one late night (like most last nights), I came across Shaker. It looked like a few of my friends were currently using it so I was curious. Was this the next social media fad?
I was surprised by what I saw. It was a chat room and reminded me of the Zynga game YoVille except there’s no need to visit your friends for fake virtual currency and build a virtual space. Shaker is a virtual chat room. It uploads your Facebook information and you’re instantly connected with anyone else within the Shaker land. You can dance, mingle, sit on a couch, drink a Shaker soda and look for people to talk to with your same interests. A bubble with your info pops up if you click on your virtual persona.
The way I see it Shaker is in addition to any social networking tool out there except you get to have a little more fun with it. Instead of chatting with someone via words on Facebook, Twitter, etc. you can find them in a virtual space similar to a chat room. To me, it’s a little creepy. There’s already a complaint that we social media geeks spend too much time indoors behind our computers online and Shaker makes it all the more convenient to be a couch potato by creating a virtual land for all us to pretend like we’re outside when we’re not. What do you think? Is Shaker going a bit too far or is this just another way to have fun online?
