Facebook was the social tool with unexpectedly obvious but surprisingly overlooked idea of integrating small third party applications within a social framework. It is, of course, the user base that makes it work. I will not discuss whether the available apps are useful or not, or they are even functional. Most of them were rubbish. And they still are. But my opinion is; Facebook has nothing to do with it. It is a problem created by no-good developers and escalated to gigantic proportions by irresponsible users’ invites. Nevertheless, it was a great idea and successful execution integrating third party apps. Facebook is, by no coincidence, one of the main actors of Internet1.
Today there is almost no way of social interaction that you can’t engage within Facebook. You can write private messages, you can join groups and write to forums there, you can pinch, poke and even sell your friends, you can try flirting with girls/boys in your friends’ friend list, you can share videos, images, links, apps… An average Internet surfer can do anything with a single Facebook account. It is not because of Facebook’s technical infrastructure but because of its user base. Your friends are in.
The design had changed a number of times. Although people complain a lot, I’ve seen only improvement2. The latest change made it effectively a micro-blogging application with 1000 other features that competing micro blogging utilities don’t have. I would expect no less from a smart company like that.
Thanks, But No Thanks
I have de-activated my account a couple of days ago. This is the second time. And I will most probably re-activate it in the future, so it’s not the last de-activation. Now; I am not the type of person checking my Facebook profile every other hour, watching all the funny videos my friends shared and joining I bet I can find 1M people who loves to eat buggers groups. Seriously what’s with these groups? I can understand the users ultimately decide the purpose of an online tool, but don’t you think it is stupid to use groups as surveys? So that some day a jerk can send you his pitch on that miraculous cabbage pill? And don’t get me started with who has visited your profile, guaranteed groups. Anyway, I bet I can find 1M people who joins any handsome looking group without giving it a seconds thought. But that’s not the issue here. I de-activated not because of some kind of addiction, it’s not even the annoyence of all those useless notifications and app invitations. I de-activated because of fear. Fear of social isolation and degradation.
Log in to your Facebook account and read everything on the page… I’m waiting please read it all… Now answer the following questions:
- Do you define your experience as one of sharing? What does it tell you about your friends that you don’t already know and yet care about? In other words have they touched you3? Can you really touch them via your profile?
- Are you a better person in any way now? Ok, just reading one page can’t possibly make you a better person. But a healthy social relationship should, in time, make you a better individual, right? So, taking your whole social network experience into consideration, did it improve you one bit?
- Would you still care about those people if they weren’t in your Facebook profile? I mean, would you be worried if they didn’t update their status for a while? If you said yes to some people in your profile; how many of them have you contacted lately? If they really mean something to you a 140 character public message shouldn’t be enough to know if they are really doing well, right?
This is not a Facebook issue. All general purpose4 social networks have this problem when they reach critical mass. When something is emphasized too much and too often it is usually not there. Social gets a lot of emphasis on these networks. It turns out to be a massive waste of time in the end. And people are OK with it, because it’s better than TV. Well, I agree with them on this one. But I stay away from all kinds of narcotics.
Your Social Network Owns You
Now that I have shared my opinion on how much value social networks create for you5, let’s think about how much value you create for your social network. You tell them about yourself, where you live, what kind of education you have, what you like, what you don’t like and more importantly who do you know and how… yada yada… we all know that. And as long as you have agreed the terms and they play by the rules it is all OK. There is nothing wrong with creating value by sharing your personal information voluntarily.
You change the way you interact with others. You use private messaging instead of e-mail, you share media with built-in sharing feature, you write status messages instead of your blog. You lock yourself in, and this influences your friends as well to accept lock in. Network effect. My fear is; not being able to break this lock in. If Facebook’s growth continues like this more and more people will unknowingly be locked in. That is they will know no Internet outside of a few sites they regularly use. They will for instance see this effort of blogging futile, nobody will read it, if it’s not Facebook. And they will be right. But Facebook doesn’t create a culture for contemplative writing. Facebook wants you to express yourself in 140 or so6 characters as a status message. What are you doing now? Not much. Because much can only happen when you string many nows together.
Don’t get me wrong here I am not critisizing Facebook. I am critisizing the culture that Facebook and others are creating. I mention Facebook because it is the biggest and the most successful of all. I will use it again, it makes getting in touch with old friends possible. I would like to use seperate services for e-mailing, link sharing, chat, etc.. because it minimizes the possibility of a lock in. Remember that you invest your time, no, your life on these free services. It is valuable. Very valuable.
Btw, who wants an isolatr invite?
1: At least in Türkiye.
2: That’s just another feature I guess; you can do your complaining for something you signed up FOR FREE without ever leaving Facebook.
3: Of course you know what I mean, you sick @%#&$?£!
4: A social network built around a specific purpose, if active, would probably create value for its users.
5: Let me be very clear; it’s none. Just in case..
6: I don’t really know how long a status message can be.
[Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/) was the social tool with unexpectedly obvious but surprisingly overlooked idea of integrating small third party applications within a social framework. It is, of course, the user base that makes it work. I will not discuss whether the available apps are useful or not, or they are even functional. Most of them were rubbish. And they still are. But my opinion is; Facebook has nothing to do with it. It is a problem created by no-good developers and escalated to gigantic proportions by irresponsible users' invites. Nevertheless, it was a great idea and successful execution integrating third party apps. Facebook is, by no coincidence, one of the main actors of Internet1.
Today there is almost no way of social interaction that you can't engage within Facebook. You can write private messages, you can join groups and write to forums there, you can pinch, poke and even [sell your friends](http://www.facebook.com/applications/Friends_For_Sale!/7019261521), you can try flirting with girls/boys in your friends' friend list, you can share videos, images, links, apps... An average Internet surfer can do anything with a single Facebook account. It is not because of Facebook's technical infrastructure but because of its user base. **Your friends are in**.
The design had changed a number of times. Although people complain a lot, I've seen only improvement2. The latest change made it effectively **a micro-blogging application with 1000 other features that competing micro blogging utilities don't have**. I would expect no less from a smart company like that.
### Thanks, But No Thanks
I have de-activated my account a couple of days ago. This is the second time. And I will most probably re-activate it in the future, so it's not the last de-activation. Now; I am not the type of person checking my Facebook profile every other hour, watching all the funny videos my friends shared and joining _I bet I can find 1M people who loves to eat buggers_ groups. Seriously what's with these groups? I can understand **the users ultimately decide the purpose of an online tool**, but don't you think it is stupid to use groups as surveys? So that some day a jerk can send you his pitch on that miraculous cabbage pill? And don't get me started with _who has visited your profile, guaranteed_ groups. Anyway, I bet I can find 1M people who joins any handsome looking group without giving it a seconds thought. But that's not the issue here. I de-activated not because of some kind of addiction, it's not even the annoyence of all those useless notifications and app invitations. I de-activated because of fear. Fear of social isolation and degradation.
Log in to your Facebook account and read everything on the page... I'm waiting please read it all... Now answer the following questions:
1. Do you define your experience as one of sharing? What does it tell you about your friends that you don't already know and yet care about? In other words have they touched you3? Can you really touch them via your profile?
1. Are you a better person in any way now? Ok, just reading one page can't possibly make you a better person. But a healthy social relationship should, in time, make you a better individual, right? So, taking your whole social network experience into consideration, did it improve you one bit?
1. Would you still care about those people if they weren't in your Facebook profile? I mean, would you be worried if they didn't update their status for a while? If you said yes to some people in your profile; how many of them have you contacted lately? If they really mean something to you a 140 character public message shouldn't be enough to know if they are really doing well, right?
This is not a Facebook issue. All general purpose4 social networks have this problem when they reach critical mass. When something is emphasized too much and too often it is usually not there. **Social** gets a lot of emphasis on these networks. It turns out to be a massive waste of time in the end. And people are OK with it, because it's better than TV. Well, I agree with them on this one. But I stay away from all kinds of [narcotics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotic).
### Your Social Network Owns You
Now that I have shared my opinion on how much value social networks create for you5, let's think about how much value you create for your social network. You tell them about yourself, where you live, what kind of education you have, what you like, what you don't like and more importantly who do you know and how... yada yada... we all know that. And as long as you have agreed the terms and they play by the rules it is all OK. There is nothing wrong with creating value by sharing your personal information voluntarily.
**You change the way you interact with others**. You use private messaging instead of e-mail, you share media with built-in sharing feature, you write status messages instead of your blog. You lock yourself in, and this influences your friends as well to accept lock in. Network effect. My fear is; not being able to break this lock in. If Facebook's growth continues like this more and more people will unknowingly be locked in. That is they will know no Internet outside of a few sites they regularly use. They will for instance see this effort of blogging futile, _nobody will read it, if it's not Facebook_. And they will be right. But Facebook doesn't create a culture for contemplative writing. Facebook wants you to express yourself in 140 or so6 characters as a status message. **What are you doing now?** Not much. Because `much` can only happen when you string many `now`s together.
Don't get me wrong here I am not critisizing Facebook. I am critisizing the culture that Facebook and others are creating. I mention Facebook because it is the biggest and the most successful of all. I will use it again, it makes getting in touch with old friends possible. I would like to use seperate services for e-mailing, link sharing, chat, etc.. because it minimizes the possibility of a lock in. Remember that you invest your time, no, **your life** on these _free services_. It is valuable. Very valuable.
Btw, who wants an [isolatr](http://isolatr.com/) invite?
-----
**1**: At least in [Türkiye](http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Türkiye).
**2**: That's just another feature I guess; you can do your complaining **for something you signed up FOR FREE** without ever leaving Facebook.
**3**: Of course you know what I mean, you sick @%#&$?£!
**4**: A social network built around a specific purpose, if active, would probably create value for its users.
**5**: Let me be very clear; it's _none_. Just in case..
**6**: I don't really know how long a status message can be.
