I don’t have a Facebook page…..
YES that’s right…
I don’t have a MySpace either and what’s more I’ve been holding out, yep, holding out for whatever is next. For the past six or seven months I’ve told my friends the MySpace era is over and we are now in the Facebook era and lately I’ve been adding and the Facebook era is in it’s mid to last phase.
Aaron Karo wrote in his Ruminations this past Monday “I think that most people are in agreement that MySpace is rapidly becoming another Friendster: a spam-filled clusterfuck ………. And let’s be honest, Facebook is not far behind.” He is hilarious and he is right.
Or course Facebook’s privacy invading new advertising beacon didn’t help their popularity. And this morning Techland had a post that opened with “A lot of people say that Facebook has jumped the shark. That’s flat out wrong. In fact, Facebook is now being devoured by the shark. There’s so much blood in the water, it’s attracting other sharks“
Maybe social networking sites have a defined window of time to be in the spotlight. Social networks are analogous to clubs/bars meaning very few have lasting “cool/in/hip” power nevertheless, there are very few places which will always be deemed cool. The question is will there be a classic/staple social netoworking site? The social networking sites that will probably thrive over the years are those connected to real life institutions like college alumni clubs, professional sports teams, and those dedicated to niche hobby/interests.
wurd!, we will start seeing more niech type social networks and less generic types. linkedin is SUCH a perfect example of that. And i think there is one for music coming up SOMEHOW, anther one for sports.
Then, THOSE are gonna become congested, and they gonna break down even further, basketball, soccer etc, you get the point!.
So I agree with you on some points, myspace has has become spam filled and in general seems juvenile. Unfortunately facebook has taken some steps toward joining them by allowing open membership and by allowing people to add applications to their page.
That being said, I don’t know who this unnamed shark eating facebook is. I also think that both sites are probably still enrolling large numbers of new members. I recently reconnected with several people I went to high school with.
Facebook is also powerfully shaping the behavior of large numbers of young people. A few days ago I read an article in the NY Times with college students declaring that today a romantic relationship is not serious until it is declared on facebook and profiles appropriately linked.
Reading into a few of the links from the entry it also seems like members of the media have an ax to grind.