Those were my exact words when my friend said that I should make one back in 2007. I heard it was just like Myspace, so what’s the point of another Myspace? Eventually more and more people started using it. After my last attempt at rejection, my best friend made my Facebook profile for me. I was forced HAD to be on Facebook.
As more and more people made the shift from Myspace to Facebook, I saw myself using it more. I spent a good amount of time on Farmville and other games (I never played Mafia Wars, my pride wouldn’t let me). It took me way too long to realize I was wasting so much time on this website.
I just couldn’t stop.
I told myself I need to do something. If i couldn’t get off Facebook, then I needed to make my time on FB somewhat productive. I just couldn’t figure out how.
Then I saw some companies doing something pretty interesting. They started making a social presence on this website. Every week you could see new companies hopping on Facebook and actually updating them like they would a blog.
I found this great. I would read up on current events on the same place I would communicate with friends. This was great for me because I spend a lot more time on the web than I do watching TV. I’d become a fan of things like the NY Times, CNN, TED, ESPN (of course). Not only would I catch up on current events, but I’d be up to date with my favorite sports teams, websites, videogames, and an abundance of other random pages. It’s all catered to me which is really nice.
On a side note, here’s a cool website about FB statistics: http://www.sysomos.com/insidefacebook/
Of course I still waste spend a lot of my time on Facebook, but not all of it can be considered wasted time now. I wonder how long until I find another website to waste all my time on.
I can truely identify with your situation, because all my friends that got swept away in the facebook obsession were making fun of me for not being a member. I would sometimes log on to facebook with some of my friends information and I just could not believe the amount of time people would spend on this site putting their entire life story out there. I really was not interesting in knowing what they had for breakfast or how much weight they put on. I must admit though, that there is an interesting and creative side to facebook but it’s nothing I cant do without or find elsewhere.
Have you ever heard of Diaspora? It’s a social networking site with some of the same functionality as FB but open source and as private as you want to make it. It was conceived of as an open alternative to FB, which is at heart a money making venture. Diaspora strives to be purely social which is interesting — I am not sure how successful it has been but I do know it is gaining some traction.
Without a doubt, the best reason to join any social networking site is that it lets you make connections with friends and other people. But on the other hand, if you join many social networks you’ll receive updates constantly. It’ll become difficult to see any one individual’s updates. And you may find yourself checking for updates several times throughout the day when you really should be doing something else.
Hey there! I’ve been reading your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Austin Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the great job!