play nice now everyone!

This is essentially a rant about social media.
While not many people use the incredibly stoic phrase "social media", it forms a part of most of our everyday lives. In fact, blogging right now I am "engaging in social media". It's intrinsic to almost everything we do, and more and more the "mainstream" sectors are starting to wake up to the power of this "social media" - cellphone networks have their own networking sites, fizzy drinks have mobile sites, ad agencies are making made-for-mobile TV shows, and PLENTY brands exist on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace to name a few.

My issue today, then, is that I am a digital native. I live and play in this world everyday. I love exploring new platforms, new arenas, new playrooms - I'm in Second Life, Club Penguin, I use Skype, MSN, Twitter, I'm trying to sign up for Habba... and my end frustration is - NOTHING TALKS TO ANYTHING ELSE!!!

For example... in order to Twitter on my iPhone, I need an application of some sort. There isn't an official Twitter app, so I download Twinkle - like Twitter, but allows for photo update. Great. Then I realize, the people available on Twitter aren't necessarily available on Twinkle. Those are Tapulous people. Not Twitter people. In several instances, they operate in both environments, but only if you physically cross over. So when I made a friend on Twinkle, it didn't reflect on my Twitter. Annoying.
Then, I see other people are using Twitpic to upload pics to Twitter. So let's try that. Issue NOW is, if I twitter a pic on the move, using Twinkle, it doesn't go to my Twitpic collection. I have to go back and upload it there if I want that stream to be a reflection of all pics I've uploaded. Annoying.

I'm working on different platforms - mobile and online - why can't my applications and logins reflect that while I needed to use different apps to access the system on each one, they're happy to talk to each other and play along? Why on earth, in this day and age of rampant personal publishing, internet stars and brand-agnosticism, do I have to remain true and faithful to one app? Huh? Tell me that.

And don't even get me started on my blog that wouldn't let me in because I used a different Google account for my Gmail than I used for my blogger....argh!