It is a very interesting angle that you are taking on facebook as a list building device.

You make many good points about facebook and it’s overly extended uses for information acquisition. However, the only thing that is making facebook strong are the people who are using it. They are the only ones giving value to the site.

Many of individuals using it, seem to be completely happy with it or even if they do complain, they do not have the desire to follow through with quitting facebook and returning to “normal” means of communication.

Facebook became famous because it allowed people to share pictures, posts, and what else have you privately, isolated from the eyes of everybody else. Over time it changed and evolved into something else and many people just had so much vested in it, that quitting was definitely not something they were willing to do.

In this day and age, information is the most valued resource and many of us are giving it away for free.

Thank you for your great comment!

Tomas

Facebook, and similar blogging sites are really exercises in list building. How sad it is to believe mistakenly that a random list on a screen can somehow truly be a ‘friend’! And yet I have witnessed relatively ‘sane’ human beings actually competing over the acquisition and building of such lists, and getting ‘upset’ if one of the list removes themselves – as if someone had died!

More than this though, it is the sheer ‘determinist’ nature of the design. It is deliberately made to appeal to the lowest common denominator and this explains not only the banality of much of the communication and content, but also the content that is hate filled, racist, extremist and generally unpalatable – no doubt justifed by Mr Zuckerman as ‘freedom of speech’. The question is, do we really want our children exposed to this addictive process and kind of material?

I suspect the longterm business plan for Facebook is to appeal to the young, (like smoking), and get them addicted young. In this sense, the turn-over of older users, who come and go, or who view Facebook as an invasion of privacy, are viewed very much as a ‘loss leader’. Social networks are, as you say, a mere reflection of reality, and in no way ‘are’ reality. I was actually talking to family members on Facebook, whilst we were all in different rooms in the same house!

Thank you

It was my exact same reasoning for deleting my facebook account. Congratulations!!!

Best,
Tomas

WELCOME and Thank you! I am honored to have you as a reader (an active one at that :)). I am inspired by your comment and I am dedicated to keep writing great content and keep pushing myself to deliver more quality thoughts and suggestions.

Best,
Tomas

Great comment. Very well written and very clear and with great content.

Here are my thoughts on your position. It is ultimately a matter of control. Yet, there enough things in our lives over which we need to exercise control, why burden ourselves with another “tool”, which requires extra energy to control?

I also I understand that if I know what I want from facebook, then I can really turn into a great tool. Yet, coming back to one of the points that you made: noise. Precisely because of that “noise” on facebook, it becomes difficult to use it and can lead to frustration.Not to mention the fact, that the majority of people do not use facebook for what it could be, instead they use it as a platform to brag and boast about themselves without a real desire to connect with others.

Which brings me to the concept of network externalities. Originally facebook enjoyed positive network externalities: the more people joined, the more value everybody gained. However, over time facebook started showing signs of negative network externalities: the more people joined, the less valuable it became. It was not only the number of people that were using that was a problem, it was the way they were using, not to mention the fact of how facebook itself uses it (talking about privacy, advertising, etc).

Moreover, you pointed the research which was done. It actually said that the maximum amount of people that we can maintain meaningful interactions with is somewhere around 150. How many do you have? I used to have 600+ facebook friends, yet I can only keep in touch with some many. To me superficial interactions are just not worth it. Why have an interaction which adds no value to your life?

It is essentially, a matter of personal choice, but I have answered and touched upon the issues which you raised. So thank you for that.

Best,
Tomas

P.S. Thank you for a great article idea!

Thank you for sharing the article. It’s interesting how she admits having a problem, yet at the same time she is alright with it. It is indeed funny and sad, because when I went to college I saw what she describes day and day out. Anywhere and everywhere I went, I would see the phenomenon described in her article. Facebooking is the new addiction it seems and everybody’s okay with it.

I am glad that you have your facebook account under control, keep it up!

Best,
Tomas