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The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

jimlastinger.com

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Re: The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

#21

Post by reemrevnivek »

In response to all the "Don't add people you don't know" comments, I think it should be pointed out that this isn't always an option.

Drama and politics variously meant that I had to accept requests from people who posted far too many meaningless status updates. Blocking, hiding, muting etc. don't work when you need to respond to 1 out of the 100 posts they send your way.

If it was possible to filter, mute, mark-as-read on a programmatic basis as it is with email (Love gmail filters...), I might not have been forced to delete my account.

People can't take it personally when you delete your account, but not friending, unfriending, hiding, or blocking can all be considered personally offensive actions.

Re: The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

#22

Post by gigawatt »

muppetman wrote: post #20
gigawatt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am quite proud of the fact I only have 100 FB friends, because I know each and every one of them. I lot of people I know from IRC and work refer to be as the Facebook Nazi because I won't add them, but they're not really my friends and I don't want to know what they're doing at 5am in the morning. Maybe it's a personal shortcoming, but this is the main reason I still don't have a Facebook account. I don't want to…

You find this? All I've found is it makes people all the more desperate for me to add them, as if I'm hiding some super social parties from them or something. I don't find it awkward to tell people "Sorry but I only add people that'd let me sleep on their couch at 5am in the morning" - in fact it often makes them feel awkward usually because they don't want to admit they'd not let me in!

I meant that it might be a personal shortcoming that I'm not able to be that blunt with people I have to see on a regular basis. I respect your system and wish I could carry it out, but for me, it's just something I really don't want to deal with. Whatever serotonin fix I would get from Facebook isn't worth it to me.

Re: The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

#25

Post by anasol »

rohanprabhu wrote: post #7

Recently I have been seeing an increase in the number of such posts titled 'Decline of facebook', 'collapse of facebook' or some other theory trying to explain why facebook won't stand the test of time. The point here is, why are we bothered? There are people who like it, and there are people who don't. The user base of facebook has reached a point where any categorization becomes too big a demographic hence no matte…

You are right, the user-base is far too large to be properly accounted for; and that is the root of the reason why there are so many articles about FB's decline is that some of us wish for it. Think about it: who writes these articles? The same basis of geeks, bloggers and web designers that consider that FB has become overpopular and loaded with a plethora of useless features (game apps, "like" buttons for pointless activities, etc.), and that some users tend to update their statuses too much and too often. Which is the main reason why smaller, and arguably better communities like this one can thrive. It is all a matter of who gets to call the shots regarding what the Internet should be like.

Re: The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

#26

Post by BobKabob »

kin wrote: post #6

I don't have this problem. None of my friends have this problem. It looks to me more like user error of adding people you don't know and adding spam apps than it is Facebook's problem.

I signed up for facebook, friended no one that didn't friend me and that I didn't know personally, told no one about my account, and have a folder of facebook spam in my email box that already has 40 messages in about 2 months.

Facebook spams you if someone has your email address in their address book. Facebook spams you if someone wants to be your friend. Facebook spams you if someone has a birthday. Almost half of my Facebook spams are in Spanish, and I don't speak Spanish.

And I have six friends in Facebook. Six. I can't imagine how bad it is if you have 100.

Re: The Decline of Facebook As A Social Network

#28

Post by randall »

ajslater wrote: post #17
randall wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started two podcasts on CNET, Loaded and The 404, so I have some people who friended me on FB because of that. My solution? I hide unmercifully. If I don't care about someone, or they post 1-2 status updates I find irrelevant, they get hidden from my feed. I have 1k+ friends, but I still get the signal : noise ratio that I like.

Your problem is cured by creating a Facebook Fan page. Many famous people's Facebook problem could be cured with that.

At the time, I didn't have the ability to create a fan page... and now I don't work at CNET, so now I have random left over fans.

Def not the end of the world.

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