A year of Facebook
social networking May 16th. 2008, 6:00amI joined Facebook about a year ago. You might say that Facebook was my first step, along with user-generated content sites like Helium, into social media.
Like a lot of people, I went through a period of intense usage, backed off Facebook quite a bit to focus on other things, then I came back to it on a limited basis. I’ve renewed some old acquaintances (some really, really old ones, for that matter) and added a few new ones. It really hasn’t affected my non-virtual life, but it was really nice to get back in touch with a few old friends, especially those of us who used to hang out in my hometown about a dozen years ago. :: suddenly feels old ::
It’s odd how Facebook becomes a given in your life: an essential service, if you will. Twitter and this blog have become more important parts of my social media experience, but Facebook will always have a place.
Which is weird since I only started using Facebook a year ago. Will I be using it in five years? Ten years? Twenty five years? In the retirement home? It’ll be interesting to see.
Now over to you. Do you use Facebook? How long have you been using it? Do you spend a lot of time using Facebook each day or barely a moment?
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May 16th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Like you I joined Facebook a year ago at the start of my online social media experience. It was at a point where I checked there first thing in the morning as opposed to email.
My usage dropped off as I learned more and also found it was taking away too much of my time. Well, I allowed it to let’s say.
I think it still serves a purpose and I catch up with old friends that no longer live close. But there came a point during the “FB rush” where it started to get too clogged with app requests, slow loading and just an overall bloat.
The final turning point came when a friend tried to send a birthday wish and she told me I had over 80 aps installed on my profile.
Bottom line, I have uninstalled the majority of the aps, don’t accept anymore now and only visit every couple of days for a short period to catch up.
I still like Facebook. But the honeymoon is over.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:04 am
@Paul - we seem to be of similar minds. I decline most app invites now as well.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Use Facebook. Only a few months into it and I already feel the same sort drop off as others. I still keep up with friends and find old ones when I can. I get tired of the new apps, and the new apps, and new apps…good grief, we get it. I hardly ever accept any new apps anymore either. My usage has dropped off, but not near as much as my MySpace usage (see funny Social Networking Wars on Giovanni Galucci’s blog).
May 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am
@Richie - I’ve actually been thinking about establishing a presence on MySpace, just due to the sheer size of the community, but I think I understand what you are saying.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Facebook grew annoying very soon. What appears lucrative at first as extra functionality soon starts to look like feature creep.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
@vimoh - also feels like a means to try to take your personal data, too.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
@Mark the MySpace numbers don’t lie. I agree with the notion of maintaining a presence there, just a time-management issue i guess.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
@Richie - yes, it’s all about time…
May 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I was initially addicted to Facebook, predominantly as it allowed me to reconnect with many old friends. But once the connections were made I found it increasingly useless and annoying over time. In particular, as the popularity of applications grew, my patience wore extremely thin at the mountains of spam I received to learn that someone had thrown a cow at me. Urgh! The final straw came when chain mail become popular fodder for the walls…
All a product of my friendship group undoubtedly… perhaps if I used it for business purposes rather than social it’d still be semi-appealing…
May 17th, 2008 at 5:41 am
@James - I was never a bit fan of the walls, either.