Am I the only person who's 'over' Facebook?
Actually, I'm more than over Facebook.
I might be starting to loathe Facebook as much as I loathe reality TV.
I used to love the good old days 'before FB' when my intelligent, witty friends would write. Not to me personally, I mean, but on their blogs. I would relish reading about their adventures in the world; their opinions; their family stories, but alas, no more.
These days folks just tap out 10-15 words next to their Facebook names and, well, that's it! Done! Honestly, is that any way to treat a friend? Even a Facebook friend? 10 words!
But what are you going to do?
Here I am lamenting the demise of a few cheery blogs when the very future of investigative journalism hangs in the balance. 'Serious' newspapers are closing weekly, and all because some bright sparks in the publishing industry thought it would be a good idea to give away the education and craft of an entire generation of journalists for free on the Web.
Doesn't that seem like a bad idea now?
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that if I'd paid my former-blogger friends by the word they might not have abandoned their blogs for the cheap thrills of Facebook! On the other hand...sometimes ten words are all you need, right?
For example: 'Facebook fatigue' kicks in as people tire of social networks
If you hate this reduction in content generation, I assume you're abandoning your twatter account then?
Posted by: ian | March 19, 2009 at 03:38 AM
Facebook is boring and I rarely use it...the fact that they f*ck about with the format drives me crazy too....I think of it as an extending contacts list...
I think that the death of some blogs is no bad thing...too many people saw it as an opportunity to live out their dream of being a writer, only to find that, well, they couldn't write... The good ones will survive and get stronger, forming bigger and better communities around them (hello 'Dooce') and the blogs such as your own that are a way to keep in touch with extended family and friends will also survive (as long as you keep writing them)...the rest, well....see above.
From a PR point of view, I think that the consolidation of blogging is a good thing - there'll still be online conversations going on and they'll be great conversations amongst dedicated, opinionated individuals...the challange is going to be how you interact and get involved in the conversations (which it has always been eh?). So....nothing really changes, it just becomes a case of the 'targeting' (a word I hate, but let's be professional) being a bit easier to plan.
Now - back to booze, footie and babies etc.... :-)
Posted by: Matt | March 19, 2009 at 05:00 AM
I love facebook.
How else would I be able to see how Emma is looking these days (gorgeous)?
How would I be able to find all my friends from high school and see photos of their wives/husbands/kids?
And it never replaces my blogging activity.
Posted by: Dushka | March 20, 2009 at 02:09 PM
Okay...so what I really meant was "I wish more of my friends had blogs, because they're a talented bunch of writers and I'd like to know what they've been up to recently....and I blame Facebook for some of them giving up their blogs in the first place.
Oh, and Poddy, I only Twitter for work...which is why you keeping hearing about that large networking company I work for, IF you happen to follow me on Twitter at all. ;-)
As for the PR debate, Matt, my worry is that free media (aka blogging) is cannibalising media (just as Facebook is killing blogging) and if we all allow paid-for media to die, then the only person still reporting world news will be Perez Hilton (except for the BBC, obviously - hoorah for the TV License!)
Posted by: David McCulloch | March 22, 2009 at 07:44 PM
I came back to this blog entry of yours because after being a die hard facebook fan, I feel only in the past couple of days that I'm getting fatigued of it. I felt it only fair for me to return and confess.
Posted by: Dushka | March 24, 2009 at 06:45 PM
You know...that's what happened to me. One day, I was "ooh...some more old friends to connect with"....and the next: "Wait a minute, I had them in my address book anyway...and never called them then either."
Posted by: David | March 24, 2009 at 08:37 PM