Facebook Changed Everything, It’s Not A Fad, and I’m With Zuck

It's the [shortest|simplest|easiest] electronic link to keeping up with family for hundreds of millions, and that is a network effect beyond all network effects.

While grandparents have grandchildren, Facebook endures.

Sure, people like all the things the author listed, but the author doesn't say why /Facebook/ isn't a fad. Didn't Friendster or Myspace have huge amounts of personal data before they went under? The author mentions it briefly with Myspace, but he doesn't really elaborate. How much longer will it be until another even more innovative and capable company comes along and eats Facebook's lunch?

I was enjoying the Facebook dissenter's comment until I reached the last word. It sort of defeated whatever persuasive import he had gained up to that point.

What's interesting is the blogger feels the need to engage such a comment. And he's certainly not the only one. If it's not a fad, if the quoted comment is way off the mark, if Facebook is all the great things we are told it is, then why is he arguing against a comment like this? No need to argue with fools, right?

But is anyone really sure what the heck Facebook is? It's a web developer's wet dream is what it is. Beyond that, who knows?

The arguments will continue, as they should. The jury is still out, though some investors have already reaped hundreds of millions from curious advertisers while we're deciding. They'll have cashed out long before we come to a final decision.

My personal opinion is that human communication through the internet, including photos and video, and achieving global internet connectedness of everyone, not just nerds, is definitely not a fad. Nor is is it something new. We've all been working toward this for many years. But doing it all, even the most personal parts, through Mark Zuckerberg's website? As in the "I think I will fuck them in the ear" Mark Zuckerberg. I'm just not sure I can call this a practice that is going to continue indefinitely, as other alternatives arise. There are better ways to do this sort of internet-enabled sharing and commmunication. To think they will never be made as user-friendly as Facebook seems to be ignoring inevitable forward progress.

Historically, Facebook may stand as the first proof we had that we could all coordinate with our friends to exchange contact information and photos in one central repository. Now that we have everyone's email address, it will be easy to coordinate and move the party elsewhere when the right alternative appears.

True Facebook "blew the door off of what everyone thought social networking was," but at what cost?

What does it mean when "half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad" coupled with other reports of unhappiness among Facebook users?

Nobody doubts Facebook was a game-changer, but perhaps the alleged troll mentioned in the blog post is onto something. Perhaps many users are in for a rude awakening after they have been given enough time to evaluate their lives and relationships pre/post Facebook. As a long-time Facebook user myself, I often wonder if the connections I've made over the years through Facebook have been a byproduct of hype and excitement vs. intentional steps taken to manage my relationships.

As an entrepreneur I share the same scoped viewpoint a software developer would have regarding Facebook. The ability to reach the masses quickly, especially with the help of friends, is godsend. As a user I have good and bad days. Some days I have great conversations with all my friends all over the world in one place. Other days, I feel like a ghost, watching others passively from a distant.

I certainly can't speak for any other Facebook user, but should I conclusively ever find out the service causes me more pain than happiness, I will never use Facebook again. The mere fact that I would even consider the notion that Facebook may have ruined my real world relationships is a cause for concern.

I believe Facebook has definitely made the world a smaller place by creating an intuitive social interface for the Internet. Part of me wants to see their momentum disrupted by some new disruptive start-up, but how can I when Zuck is still very much a start-up CEO who just so happened to reach astronomical heights at a very young age. As long as they continue to find ways to find ways to help users live better lives, they will have my vote too. I believe in Mark and trust that he will not trade great user experience for a few billion more dollars. He deserves to be here more than MySpace or all the other no-name networks.

Interesting to see what will happen next. I hope this really isn't the death of Silicon Valley like many people are saying...

The problem with this post is that instead of taking the articulate arguments of why facebook might become less successful in the future and arguing against them, it more or less says 'Heres a troll who agrees with you, so you must be wrong'.

Later we get 'Heres a list of [fairly random] things about facebook'. So what? These may or may not be relevant to the future of facebook but aren't explained at all in these terms by the author.

If you want to write a blog post about something like this, please explore the issues more and don't just fill it with opinion and conjecture.

> It maintains friendships

> It resurrects old friendships

> It sparks new friendships

No. Facebook does none of those things. All these are activities which can be facilitated by using tools such as a telephone, face-to-face meetings, e-mails or facebook. Facebook does not execute these activities automatically.

It increases discoverability, so that it does become easier for you to find former friends or collect more information about new acquaintances. Whether that makes us depend on it, I doubt it.

> It passes boredom

So does cutting your toenails

> It maintains friendships, > It resurrects old friendships, > It sparks new friendships

No, people do those things. It's a medium for that interactions, but hardly the only one.

> It’s extendable, > It’s integratable

Those are both pretty clever. The quality of work that utilises this capacity may vary, but that's not FB's fault.

> It’s a social news feed

Yep, quite cool for that

> It’s a world news feed

Only if you consider celebrity gossip to be world news

> It’s a chat platform

It's a horrible chat platform

> It’s a media sharing platform

Love that side of it

> It’s a company of talented hackers

Their mobile apps suggest otherwise, to be honest

> It’s a place where small business promote themselves

Pretty cool for that. Used wisely, it's a great return on investment, based on what I've seen people I know doing. My sister is a wedding photographer and she gets tons of jobs through it.

> It’s the only place that some businesses promote themselves (not even a website)

That's true, but I find that to be a pretty horrendous user experience. The Wall / Info / Page structure for company pages is just dire. Even web pros like me have trouble getting the info they want.

> It’s Google’s big problem to solve

I dunno. General Motors have stopped advertising with them, and I've heard a lot of people say the return on investment isn't great on FB ads compared to google ads.

> It has created a massive queryable, crowd-sourced, graph of people, places, and things of the world

That's very unattractive to me, I don't like the thought of the shared details of my life being someone else's commercial product.

> They’ve captured 1/7th of the world

If you think having lots of customers online is a mark of quality, I suggest you listen to Bruno Mars' "The Way You Are", the highest selling song on digital, ever. Popular means successful, it doesn't mean good.

> They asked for all of your info, and you gave it to them

How is that supposed to be attractive? And a lot of people actually give fake info, speaking as someone whose facebook profile is named after a tractor and shows up as the wrong gender.

Facebook would have been nothing if it weren't for the popularity of Myspace. Facebook also would have been nothing had Myspace continued to innovate and grow, giving users fewer compelling reasons to switch.