When Facebook dies

I wonder how the many people for whom Facebook has been their first experience of online social networking will feel when it inevitably dies under its own weight or gets replaced by something better. Sure there will probably be a hard core of survivors but many will experience for the first time the migration to the next best thing. Be interesting to hear the reactions.

Comments

[ditdotdat]

I think that for quite a lot of people it will be a good excuse to give up social networking for a bit. Many people I know are ambivalent about Facebook. It's a bit like chocolate biscuits; they feel that it's a bit bad for them but they can't resist going back for more. If, and I'm not as sure as I used to be that's it's inevitable, Facebook turns bad it may be replaced by a much more fragmented set of activities than we can currently anticipate.

[Matt O'Neill]

at this time, i can't imagine fb dying or being usurped by anything.

don't you think fb simply makes social media accessible to people in a way that blogs / podcasts just alienated them?

M

[Euan Semple]

Not sure about blogs and podcasts alienating anyone Matt but yes the benefit of Facebook has been to introduce a whole load of new people, who may never have been inclined to take up blogging, to get involved. However Facebook is far from perfect and having been in almost every networking system from way back I am pretty confident that it's dominance is going to be ephemeral.

And ditdotdat I agree that people will get more sophisticated and have more choice which leads to fragmentation which can be frustrating. There are so many book related networking tools that getting enough people in any of them long enough to have a decent conversation is maddening!

[Bernie Goldbach]

What amazes me most is watching seniors in college--who you would think represent Facebook's target demographic--losing patience with pokes, bites and pointless diversions found in things called "applications." If college students are wondering whether Facebook is worth their time, what kind of sustainability is really on the cards for the Facebook ecosystem?

[Nigel]

Hope it doesn't die before I've gone through the 'want to read' list on my virtual bookshelf - applications with a personal investment like that will be the salvation.

[david cushman]

They need to rail in the auto opt-in (and limit widget developers similarly). They have sufficient scale now. Time to give control back to the people.

[vanderwal]

I have been thinking about this for a while. Facebook is continually blundering around privacy, trust, and security. I with the dust up around Beacon I have had about 40 of my contacts deactivate their account or remove all of their info and ask Facebook to close their account permanently (FB makes it very difficult to leave).

FB brought the social network (profile and digital statement of social relationship) to more of the masses. It also made the connecting with people secondary and interacting with your friends and contacts more of a main focus (I do not believe they really are doing this all that well and their is great room for improvement). People will tire of Facebook or lose trust in their capability to manage information they share that is not intended for all eyes.

Post-FB will be a desire for more services than when FB entered and a decreased focus on "friending" with more on interaction and sharing.

[Sam Berrisford]

A friend sent me this link about Facebook which I found quite unnerving. It may be all round the blogosphere, but just in case you haven't seen it ....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU

I'm sure there's a smart way to embed this Euan, but I've got no idea!

[Cormac Heron]

FB here to stay or not I don't think it really matters much. There was probably the same hoohaa when the phone directory started getting popular. Now people don't even use the phonebook as we are now on everyone's mailing list (or FB friend list).
Meanwhile:
I found the music and the voice to be more disturbing than the content :(

[Cormac Heron]

Another log for the fire:

http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been-kicked-off-of-facebook/

[Euan Semple]

http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/559714622