But one thing I found particularly interesting is that one of the professors mentioned that like MySpace, the reign of both Facebook and even Twitter will soon come to an end. There are already new social networking websites in the making, and its estimated that within 18 months, Facebook will be as dead as MySpace.
I wasn't able to find any links or articles about it, but the closest thing I did find was an article about an upcoming site called Ning. Check it out, seems pretty cool the way they described it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/technology/03social.html?ex=1330578000&en=f718f182170673a4&ei=5088
To me, aside from commenting on your friends' walls or posting pictures, and although you can kill some time looking through people's pages and reading the news feed, Facebook is really childish. This has taken a huge turn-around from the time it was still relatively new; back when it was the "sophisticated" alternative to Myspace, specifically for college students. Maybe it really was the addition of high school students to Facebook that snowballed into the distaster it is today. Different demands? Different attitudes? Different expectations? And when a high percentage of users are demanding change, well, its bound happen eventually I suppose.
For example, the fan pages are typically nothing more than vague, sexist, unoriginal, non-unique, or just plain unnecessary, such as the fan page "I write in a weird combination of cursive and print". Sometimes I just want to ask people "Who cares?"
And the games are probably fun, sure, but certainly no one cares about someone's else's progress, especially when your news feed is flooded with news about a game you don't even play.
And as everyone knows my now, your personal life can easily be taken to the news page, next thing you know, even if your statuses were meant to reach a small group of people, people seem to forget that users you haven't spoken to in years know all about your bad breakup, your new baby, your opinions of other people, your hangover, your bad decisions, and everything else that would otherwise be kept private if clicking "submit" wasn't so easy.
And with this, real life social networking is on its wasy out, too. No longer is it necessary to make friends first and then add them on facebook, its become socially acceptable to instead add them first. If rejected, er, ignored, we keep clear in real life.
So regardless of actual social issues, in terms of applications I really do think Facebook has plummeted ever since the introduction of the applications. Some were really fun and did make Facebook a bit more user-friendly, like the Music App, Graffiti, Places I've Traveled, and so on. I'd delete my page, but I do still use it to keep up with quite a few people, and I guess I can't deny that it is a pretty good time killer.
Anyway, if I do join the next big thing with social networking sites, I certainly hope it stays classy like Facebook used to be. A couple games here and there, some applications I suppose, but I certainly hope it stays away from all the hype of giving users every little thing in their wildest dreams they can think of.
And the games are probably fun, sure, but certainly no one cares about someone's else's progress, especially when your news feed is flooded with news about a game you don't even play.
And as everyone knows my now, your personal life can easily be taken to the news page, next thing you know, even if your statuses were meant to reach a small group of people, people seem to forget that users you haven't spoken to in years know all about your bad breakup, your new baby, your opinions of other people, your hangover, your bad decisions, and everything else that would otherwise be kept private if clicking "submit" wasn't so easy.
And with this, real life social networking is on its wasy out, too. No longer is it necessary to make friends first and then add them on facebook, its become socially acceptable to instead add them first. If rejected, er, ignored, we keep clear in real life.
So regardless of actual social issues, in terms of applications I really do think Facebook has plummeted ever since the introduction of the applications. Some were really fun and did make Facebook a bit more user-friendly, like the Music App, Graffiti, Places I've Traveled, and so on. I'd delete my page, but I do still use it to keep up with quite a few people, and I guess I can't deny that it is a pretty good time killer.
Anyway, if I do join the next big thing with social networking sites, I certainly hope it stays classy like Facebook used to be. A couple games here and there, some applications I suppose, but I certainly hope it stays away from all the hype of giving users every little thing in their wildest dreams they can think of.
It doesn't surprise me at all that face book or twitter will die off. The digital medium is constantly growing and new more effective ways are being created to share information and to meet and stay in contact with people from across the world. The need to communicate will never go away, hence the the new Ning, which surely will be obsolete in a period of time when something better comes out like all the other services.
ReplyDeleteAs for the apps I agree. It has become a little ridiculous and the most I use my facebook and twitter for is communication and staying connected to the web and friends. However, the extra applications do not surprise me in the least bit. Anytime you have a product or service offered to millions of people, you will constantly have new features no matter how useless they are to take advantage for the technology, after all as we all have seen there is more than enough people playing farmville and mafia wars on a daily basis. Not only are these other features and applications used as a way to keep face book alive and active but to keep people coming to face book as well. If you don't keep them hooked they will leave and find another alternative service.
As for communicating with friends and knowing near intimate information about them without actually having to talk to them, it is a interesting phenomenon. It has completely changed the way we talk and communicate to people on different levels of knowing them. Not only has this changed the sociological aspect of communication, but the digital one as well!