Social Netsheeping 

Unlike "Social Networking" which would imply "work" or "networking" is being done, Social Netsheeping is an odd "follow the leader" phenomenon, sometimes called a "status game" that occurs on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites where people post instructions to post something specific in their user status (their bra or underwear color, the definition of their first name, the name of the first person they kissed, an excerpt from a certain page in the book nearest them at the moment, a coded message, phrase or number, etc..) or change their profile picture (to a baby pic or pet pic or hero or look-a-like celebrity) for no apparent reason other than, "everyone else is doing it."

Sometimes these requests ask that you copy the post and do something specific or unique to you, sometimes they ask you to post a coded message, like an inside joke, a dollar total derived from a list of illicit acts that are assigned specific values or a silly phrase that is made up from portions of text that are pieced together from a list using your date of birth or letters in your name.

The act of re-positng the request and/or complying with these given instruction or essentially, following the leader, is netsheeping or more formally, social netsheeping.

"OMG! I am so tired of all this social netsheeping! These people need to get a life!"

An example of a social netsheeping "game" or code would be a message sent instructing friends to post a phrase (without any explanation) in their facebook status, that is derived from a code:

In one example, a person wearing a black shirt, born on Jan 1, xxx0 would post, "I kicked a birdbath in your bathroom because that's how I roll!"

Search "current Facebook status game" or "I kicked a banana in your car because I'm cool like that" for more examples or actual codes used.

Social Netsheeping by Mark in San Bruno February 3, 2010