It took me a long time to warm up to facebook. Eventually it was everyone else’s adoption of the site and its practices that convinced me to once again reaffirm my membership and make connections again. It’s been a good decision in the short-term, if only for the current knowledge of long-lost friends and colleagues.
Another peculiar benefit was seeing my former labmate’s profile and down there at the bottom, her dog’s profile. I had my first introduction to dogbook.
Dogbook it seems is the canine equivalent to facebook. Well, it’s not exactly an equivalent mind you. Rather it allows people to add pictures of their dogs to their profiles, for their dogs to join social networks, and for their friends to send ‘pets’ and other gifts. Here’s their description:
Dogbook allows you to create a profile for your dog, tag your dog in photos, find dogs in your area, and much more!
After doing some searches, it seems that dogbook isn’t the only facebook-hosted social networking site for animals out there. Besides dogbook there’s catbook, horsebook, rodentbook, fishbook and, of course, petbook.
My favorites are the ‘Obese Ann Arbor Squirrel Supporters‘ and the ever vigilant ‘Chihuahuas of NYC – UNITE!‘
More may be on the way as facebook users seem to be requesting ratbook, cowbook, and ferretbook as well.
For me this means that social networking is quick to adopt our companions of other species, or at least to use them as indicators of our own social compatibility. That friends can send gifts such as virtual pets and chew toys ups the ante. The benefit isn’t really for the pets themselves, but it much more for the user own self satisfaction I’m guessing. Of course the ads at the top of dogbook speak volumes. Maybe it’ not for the dogs at all, but rather the people contributing to the billion$+ dog economy…
I asked a friend of mine why she added the application, and here’s what she had to say:
I added dogbook because I love the idea of my dog having friends (and, yes, he does actually visit with and play with the dogs on facebook). I added it since I have so many other friends on facebook with dogs, but so far they are all slackers (or think it is a stupid idea) and so Smudge only has one friend : ( I guess it’s lucky for him he has no clue what it’s all about.
I checked her dogs profile, and it seems he likes, “eating, running, cuddling, gathering all my toys into one pile, barking at chipmunks and pesky cats.” His favorite treats are, “Anything and everything (even carrots and grapes).”
True social physical networking among species is what interests me. How might species engage in ecosystems of care by themselves (with a little intervention from us of course)? What happens when species from different parts of the world are linked by virtual communities of care and neglect? Does it take a village or is a biosphere more appropriate these days? What are the technological links that can make these connections feasible and meaningful for us and our interspecific companions?
