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ShareFacebook is dead! Long live Facebook? Depending on your point of view, the social networking site is either experiencing growing pains or is ready for a tombstone that reads, “Here lies Facebook, 2004-2009, the beloved son of Friendster and MySpace, and father of Twitter.”
Personally, I love it. I’m an original Facebooker who joined when the site still had “the” in its domain name, but it was less than two years ago that I switched to it as my primary social scene on the Internet. Now, it always inhabits a tab on my browser and eats up my phone’s data plan.
Still, I recently thought Facebook’s end might be nigh but I’m not so sure anymore. Facebook definitely has an expiration date in this temporary tech-phenom world but I don’t think its demise is imminent.
An early morning run on the Internet reveals a healthy mix of positive and not-so-positive news stories about the site. On one hand, an American Facebook friend saved a teen from suicide in England, and “silver surfers” (that means senior citizens, not the heralds of Galactus) are quickly catching on to the movement. On the other, Facebook is testing out a “credit” system where users can pay for points to distribute among friends in comments, or to buy virtual gifts with; potential employers, schools and universities are becoming “profile police” and keeping an eye on student pages.
And perhaps you’ve heard something about new Terms of Service and an unpopular redesign?
The first, the much blogged-about TOS debacle, began on Feb. 15 when Consumerist.com broke the story over the new Facebook policy that said, to quote the consumer rights blog, “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.” Following a Benjamin Linus-worthy “Trust us, we’re looking out for you” retort by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the site has allowed users to contribute suggestions to a new TOS that they can then vote on between April 16 and April 23. Assuming at least 30 percent of the registered users, that’s about 60 million people, vote for the new policy, it will be adopted.
Meanwhile, the other issue, which garnered more uproar than the privacy and content ownership one, is all about the look of Facebook. Launched a couple weeks back, the redesign more closely resembles that young whippersnapper micro-blogging service Twitter. Based on the many anti-redesign Facebook groups that make liberal use of the word “suck,” it would seem more than a few folks are peeved about the new look.
However, the Wolverine berserker rage that set in amongst Facebook users over the TOS, the redesign and even the Beacon advertising program (that reveals user purchases from external Web sites to the world) may exactly be what will ensure Facebook’s survival—for now.
The protesters are using the site itself as a forum for joining mobs and gathering pitchforks instead of just packing up and moving on, and they’re shouting because Facebook makers are listening. You don’t need Tyra to know a key to a long-lasting relationship is two-way communication, and even if the mob is angry, it’s still a lot of people the site can keep around by updating and adapting to.
Contrast that with Facebook’s progenitors, Friendster and MySpace. There never seemed to be as vocal a community opposing or supporting changes made to those. Instead of users fighting to keep the sites alive, I remember a “last one who leaves turn out the lights” mope-away with Friendster, and MySpace is largely serving as a user billboard with a forwarding address to people’s Facebook accounts.
Additionally, Facebook manages to improve on the warm fuzzies of nostalgia-driven reunions that MySpace began. Instead of simply finding a chum from the old neighborhood, friending them and never speaking with them beyond the first “What have you been up to the last 15 years” e-mail, Facebook’s status updates allows you to re-connect and stay connected without actually chatting much. A brief comment about their plans to go see “Watchmen” goes a long way. Actually, the update feeds are the best form of keeping-in-touch mass e-mail that are personal without being too, well, personalized.
Also, while Mark Zuckerberg and company shouldn’t break into a happy-ending “Slumdog Millionaire” dance number just yet, I don’t think they have much to fear from Twitter. The perception I’m getting is that the second-to-second tweets appeal to media talking heads, “I’m hip, I’m cool” politicians, bored celebrities and their hyping publicists. Twitter may lure some away, but I doubt there will be a mass migration from Facebook to Twitter.
Twitter may have even skipped a generation. Amongst the 20-something crowd, probably the earliest of early adopters, and those of us who like to update their status—a lot—our words aren’t so precious to make Twitter worthwhile. Meanwhile, time is.
Other than nude pictures and bad poetry, few things last forever—even online. But don’t measure that generic Facebook silhouette guy for a blue funeral suit just yet. Even when they’re peeving members, the social networking site is doing right. So, for the moment at least, “Facebook is…” going to be just fine.
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Entertainment columnist Aaron Sagers writes weekly about all things pop-culture. He can be reached at sagers.aaron AT gmail.com.
