Do you Dogster, Catster, Petster, Dogbook or Doggyspace? You might think I’m a tad kooky for admitting to this, but I do.
My dogs have profiles on Dogster and Doggyspace. Granted, Dogster is my preferred network for all its accoutrements and longevity, but I just had to check out Doggyspace once Time Magazine profiled it last week in a short, interesting article on social networking “for pets.”
And the jury’s in: Doggyspace is about the same as Dogster…with a sparer look, fewer dogs and less populated forums. But I like it, too.
The thing I like about all these animal-oriented social networking sites (from a vet’s point of view) is that they’re a much safer, more democratic alternative to the puppy park. Not everyone has access to a dog park nor is every pet capable of being brought to one for actual human-pet-pet-human interaction.
Case in point: The one rabbit on Doggyspace. According to Time’s article, bunny Nixie is the first creature to have broken the species barrier on this site. As “she” writes on her profile, “I am a bunny, but I joined this because there is no BunnySpace.”
And then there’s the neat slant Time took on non-human social networking: It’s less threatening (from a human’s point of view) than MySpace or FaceBook. A significant percentage of humans will always eschew human social networking sites like these. But a pet site with your dog, cat, goat or bunny as your avatar? Why not?
Again, here we see humans taking encouragement from their pets to get out in the world ant interact with one another. In the real world there are so many barriers to interaction. In social networking there are precious few.
And then there’s the issue of what we might be learning about our pets online. If humans are role-playing Fluffy online, they’re more likely to be directed to health sites and exposed to important ideas on the subject of their pets. Maybe their relationship with their pets will even get a boost from interacting with others who care deeply for their own.
Answering messages directed to Sophie Sue (in her voice, even) may seem silly to you. But anything that makes human-human interaction easier and makes our lives more fulfilling gets a nod from me. Even if it takes experiencing a bit of fantasy through our pets to make that happen, even if it's done via the impersonal medium of social networking in cyberspace...I’m all for it.
So fess up...do you Dogster, Catster, Petster, etc.??
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Here's the link to the Time piece:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1834646,00.html
Dr. Patty Khuly August 24th, 2008 10:14:00 AM
You forgot about
RatSpace!!!
http://ratspace.ning.com/
Bettagurl August 24th, 2008 01:16:00 PM
oh yeah - we're there! :)
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/44405
lisa August 24th, 2008 02:11:00 PM
When I first went online, it was to search for a forum about land hermit crabs and I'm still part of that forum years later (www.landhermitcrabs.com). The other forum I spend a lot of time in is a fancy mouse forum. My pets are too weird for social networking websites it seems, but I learned a lot in those forums and I got to know interesting people from all over the world.
Jennifer August 24th, 2008 03:41:00 PM
I used to Catster, but left the site after having a problem with another user who was being abusive in the forums. A friend of mine (who was being a voice of reason in the situation) was thrown out and that was my final straw. I found the management at Catster to be unresponsive and consequently I don't recommend it anymore.
I just let my cat take over my livejournal now and then
drsteggy August 24th, 2008 04:05:00 PM
You forgot to mention these sites' downsides: After spending about one year browsing pet-related forums online, I decided I don't need cortisol poisoning from reading yet another post about someone breeding teacup chihuahuas in her basement, how cats are pack animals, that every behavioral problem is dominance related, that decades of research into operant conditioning and ethology is null because my dog is "stubborn", that keeping cats indoors is cruel, pit bulls are evil, here's the puppy I bought at the flea market, and so on... Forget social, nothing makes us as opinionated as our pets!
Nena August 24th, 2008 06:18:00 PM
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/22541
Kim August 25th, 2008 09:18:00 AM
My dog has a Dogster page, but I don't really participate. I forget why I even started a page, perhaps a contest? I'm a little turned off by the people writing from the pet's perspective, it creeps me out. I prefer the Meet-up forums for their attention to user treatment and guidelines. A bunch of us on the public Chihuahua forum actually started our own private forum (Chihuahua) so that we could remove/delete all the BYB talk and "teacup" Chihuahua talk and enforce the rule quickly. (Anyone can join, but disregard the rules and you're out).....
Creature of Habit August 25th, 2008 10:24:00 AM
I have a Twitter account for my bird. It's bizarre how many random people have "friended" her. There's no bird-specific social networking site that I know of.
zandperl August 25th, 2008 01:30:00 PM
Nope, but i keep meaning to caption cute pics of my cats as LOLCats at
http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Which I love. Always good for a laugh a day.
Stefani August 25th, 2008 03:49:00 PM
And don't forget
http://ihasahotdog.com/
I have to check them both daily for a laugh!
Kim August 25th, 2008 04:35:00 PM
But there is a Bunny Space, or at least BunSpace.
http://bunspace.com/
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