Forget about the privacy concerns, the onslaught of ads, the annoying design of your profile page. If people are slowly turning away from Facebook, it’s not because the company has overreached or gone over to the dark side. It’s because we’ve come to realize that people are boring.
Surely you’ve noticed this yourself, as you’ve scrolled through updates about vacations and restaurant meals, plus notices about how many of your friends are currently playing Candy Crush Saga. A survey released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 61 percent of Facebook users have taken a “Facebook vacation,” for reasons that had little to do with how the company behaves. “Too busy” was the most common complaint, followed by “just wasn’t interested” and “it was a waste of time.”
Comments
Good article!
Like you, I got tired of what score "friends" had achieved in some game or other.
Another reason I blocked most of my "friends" is that I was discovering that I did not like many of their viewpoints they felt compelled to share with everyone else. One of the things that I think happens on FB is that people forget who they are "talking" with. They say a lot of things that would normally not say to a particular individual because they know that person would not like it, yet they value that person as a friend for other reasons. In the "real" world we sense boundaries during conversations with others, that does not happen on FB.
An interesting app that is very useful is something called Glassboard that is totally controlled by the user, not a Steve Z. Sort of scales down the whole FB thing. There might be other similar products available.
Facebook seems to, like all tools, have a use, but not solve all problems. I think new tools often seems greater then they are, and eventually find their place and Factbook is another example of this.
Great article. You are spot-on about Facebook. I've noticed that young adults tend to use Twitter for immediate communication, more so than with Facebook. Facebook is a great time-suck. It is helpful to reconnect with old friends, college or high school classmates, but in the case of the high school or college classmate, there is a reason why people drift apart. Perhaps life gets in the way or the time it takes to scroll through a news feed on Facebook is too time consuming. Perhaps. Or is it the substantial distinction between an acquaintance and a true friend? Facebook chronicles the lives of acquaintances, not geniune friends. We talk, meet or text with our friends daily/weekly.
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