Facebook: A dying social-network?

My good friend John Underdown wrote this note on Facebook.  Realize this note was written somewhat in jest and sarcasm, but he brought out some good points about the social-networking world.  I’ll also post my reply to his note.

“The Death of Facebook” by John Underdown

At one time facebook was all the rage. Of course,not long after I join the community it fizzles out. I believe facebook is slowly dying…and trust me,it’ll be a slow and painful death. Facebook will become the next AIM…a certain bygone thing that we remember we used to use in jr high. But what factors are contributing to this tragic demise? The following are what I believe to be…

THE SIGNS OF THE FACEBOOK TIMES

Let’s deal with the most basic form first, which is,simply,the constantly changing format. Now I want to distance myself from the crowd that was so hardcore about living in the past that they decided to have a “facebook blackout day.” I’m not one of those people. I don’t care that much about my social networking site to go so far. Do I hate some of the changes? yes,but I think my world can survive these atomic blasts. But I digress. How does this contribute to the downfall? Well,if people keep complaining, they’re going to end up turning elsewhere for their social networking lives. There’s always myspace, after all. and then there’s other places like virb..and…um…eharmony..So all this complaining is not helping facebook at all.

Closely related is the fact that apparently facebook has a constitution, or bill of rights, or espionage agency, or some form of legal documentation. I understand there’s legal issues behind this that force them to have them,but when people get upset over that and decide to demand a “townhall” meeting where they discuss the terms in these bills…well,that may be pushing the envelope. I mean, are we our own nation now?…WW3? zombie holocaust? Swine flu? Olsen twin specials? no problem! The facebook faithful form an army greater than ancient Rome’s or Greece’s.

But perhaps the biggest slayer of facebook is the overpopulation of stupid applications,tests, and “fan clubs.” I think there’s pretty much an application for anything. You can relive any war,capture any pokemon,build all the kingdoms you want, and even find out who creepily has a crush on you. Then the tests are kinda overdoing it. At first it was kinda fun..now you just know they’re weighted certain ways and…do you really need to know what type of tatoo would go best on you(as if you’re dumb and can’t decide yourself) or what your eyes say about you or etc? Finally those fan clubs are turning into nightmares. Again,at first all was innocent:become a fan of some tv show or movie, a certain product, celebrities, bands, and Scotch Duct Tape. But now you can become a fan of meaningless things like showers, sleeping in late, nighttime, city life, pelting friends with projectiles, eating your liver, or checking your facebook in the middle of a board meeting.

The worst is that you can “become a fan” of Jesus. Seriously? I mean,sometimes I look at that and think that I can’t be a Christian unless I’m Jesus’ fan on facebook(cause it ain’t official til it’s on facebook) and that I’m laughing at people who do that. In short, if you’re a fan of over 20 things (yes,you should probably check),then you should find better ways to improve your life. A Joel Osteen book would be of better help to you. Of course,there’s gotta be some athiests/evolutionists on facebook,why can’t they demand a genocide of all these apps or just euthanize them?

There’s other things too which are fleeing my mind at the moment. Basically all these problems are rather innocent things that took off and came loose,like a chainsaw chain flying away from the tool. Unfortunately these ludicrous things will drag facebook into the pile of old recollections and reminiscences. Don’t get me wrong,facebook will be around til we die..imagine it,years from now we’re in nursing homes facebook chatting each other in neighboring rooms…it’d be like college all over again! I digress. In conclusion,facebook may live on,but its virgin luster (and that isn’t awkward) is diminished and fading.

We are all killing facebook…maybe we should engage in outdoor activities or start dating random people and stirring up drama…then we would need facebook! just a thought though…

My Reply:

John… first of all I want to compliment you on putting so much effort into this note. haha.

I agree with you… though I still think facebook is in it’s prime… it may be in danger of death.

I think another contribution is the social network Twitter. Although I have been a Tweeter for about 2 years now… it is just now beginning to make a rise. In our fast-paced, never-resting, always-moving world it is no longer “quick and easy” to get out your computer, log-in to facebook, check your notifications, picture comments, inbox messages, etc. With Twitter, you can not only follow your friends and your favorite celebs, but you can get their updates sent straight to your cell via txt, and you can reply or post your own updates in just seconds from your phone. Even if you want to take the time to lug out that old heavy MacBook Air, that’s extremely inconvenient and not portable at all, there are several desktop clients for Twitter (my favorite is Tweetie http://bit.ly/FwE4) that allow you to do everything Twitter offers without even opening your browser.Facebook is, however, working hard to keep up with times with the new home page feed and the ability to do certain actions via text.

So, all that to say, Facebook may not be on it’s death bed yet, but the Facebook team is going to have to keep working hard to stay alive and well.

For those of you on Twitter, you can follow me @josephdickens or John @JRUnderdown.  If you want to learn more about Twitter, visit twitter.com and click the “Watch a video!” link.

---