After reading Sean’s post this morning, I really started to think about Facebook and why it has such a huge impact on our lives. Sean was involved in a lengthy conversation with friends about these new changes, so it obviously took up a chunk of his time and he cared enough to invest energy in writing about it on our blog. Even before the changes were made public, and since, I have seen countless blog posts, tweets and discussions everyday that talk about what people like, what they hate, what needs work, etc. It truly was, and still is, an uprising!
I started to think about my own emotional investment in the site…how much do I care about the new changes? If they are as horrible as some people say, why do we keep using the site? Is there anything out there in the vast world of social media that could ever replace Facebook and do all of the things it does, but better? None of the competitors seem to come close to sharing the same popularity as FB. Why do we spend so much time talking about this social network (which must pale in comparison to the time we spend actually using it)? Facebook must be doing something right.
I joined Facebook in 2004, in college, when it first became available to students ONLY, and at select schools. You can read more about the history here. There have been several new waves of change since then, remember when the News Feed was first introduced? That caused a good deal of unrest in the community, but we adjusted and forgave our friend Facebook and continued to come back for more.
I came up with a list of reasons why I think we keep returning to Facebook, despite all of the complaints:
→Connections with old friends
Many of the friends I have on Facebook are what I call “blasts from the past”; people that I lost contact with when I moved out of state as a child and found again, years later, thanks to Facebook. Now we can get in touch if I go back to my hometown to visit, which would not have been possible without our online connection. For example, I will be traveling to Seattle this weekend and I was able to message a family of three siblings at once and tell them I wanted to meet up, and they all wrote back with enthusiastic replies to my thread, arranging times and places for our rendezvous.
→ Voyeurism/Stalking
C’mon, admit it, you like to watch ☺ We are addicted to following other people’s lives in secret, be it celebrities on TV and in the tabloids, or our friends on Facebook. We look at their pictures, read their messages to other people, and check their relationship status…
→Vanity
Everyone has that friend who tags themselves constantly in all of the pictures they post…is there a limit to how many photo albums you can have? Someone else must feel that same little thrill I get every time someone has commented on a photo that I am in, because it feels good to get a little attention, even if it is from your Grandma.
→Sharing our lives
I like to know what my friends are doing, especially the artist who lives in New York, my best friend from High School down in San Diego, and my old roommate traveling around Europe. I assume that they are interested in me too, so I post cool pictures and share my interests and activities. It took a little getting used to, the feeling of sharing all of these details of my life to no real visible audience. But isn’t this is the same reason why Twitter is so popular; we like to share our lives with our friends, even if we can’t see who is listening?
→Social Media Optimization
Now, with the new Pages designed especially for businesses, more and more companies are joining Facebook and creating pages for their brands. HyperArts has been experimenting with our own Page, as well as taking cues from some other companies who have proved to be thought leaders in their fields.
I wonder, have any of the changes made to Facebook ever caused a significant number of users to deactivate their profiles? The only cases that I personally have ever heard of people leaving Facebook seem to be reminiscent of a 12-step program…they were addicted and the first step was admitting they had a problem… the second step was canceling their profile…
Static FBML Code Templates for Sale!
