If you have been reading this blog for any period of time my comments may surprise you because I’ve long advocated the importance of social marketing and social networking (note: they are two distinct and separate things). In its most simplistic sense it (social) represents free speech and therefore will never go away. But can you have too much of a good thing?
But the future is social! Or is it? Recent news about Facebook provides contradictory data. On one hand you have reports that millions of people stopped using Facebook last month. Then there’s data suggesting Facebook will become the Web as detailed on Silicon Alley Insider only last week:
Suggesting Facebook will replace the Web isn’t new and marketers seem to agree with evermore companies spending millions to get people to their Facebook business page instead of their Website (See: Death of The Website).
But somethings wrong in Dodge and I find myself increasingly frustrated. When I first started using Facebook back in 2007 I was firmly in the ‘What’s the point?’ camp. But as the months passed by I found that the more I used Facebook the better it became. I connected with long lost friends and they were real friends.
Those months became years and as my ‘friend’ list grew I noticed something was missing; namely content from the people I really wanted to hear from. As I now reach 1,000 Facebook contacts I routinely hear about friends important life events way too long after they happen and often it’s not via Facebook. News simply gets lost in the cacophony of status updates and Foursquare check-ins and recycled daily inspirational quotes. Acknowledging that I cannot have real relationships with that many people I am beginning to realize that the more connected I become the more each relationship is watered down.
As I question the value of social, specifically Facebook, I look at my own path. I used to say that the more you put into Facebook the more you get out of it. I have transitioned to a place where I have to acknowledge that the more connections I have, the greater chance there is of me not seeing anything of value.
Todd explained the reason very publicly and while I didn’t initially agree with his position I felt better knowing I was not alone in the cull.
I now find myself understanding Todd’s position. In fact I believe it’s a smart move, something I might replicate.
In his explanation Todd talks about ‘the birthday test’ (“Facebook will let you know anytime any of your friends on the network is having a birthday. Knowing that, simply look at the people on that list and do one of two things — either plan to wish them a happy birthday, or delete them.”) which prompts me to highlight one (of several) issues with Facebook. With almost 1,000 connections am I supposed to wish ‘happy birthday’ to (on average) three people a day? Of course averages are pretty useless; the reality is that there are some days when I have as many as ten ‘friends’ celebrating a birthday. At the risk of being called anti-social I really don’t want to keep posting ‘Happy Birthday!’ messages.
Another problem is that people often think posts on Facebook are seen by all of their connections. That’s simply not the case especially for anyone with a lot of ‘friends’.
If you’d rather check email, send a text or do anything with your phone than talk to the person/people in front of you:
1. You need new friends, or
2. You are rude and I don’t want you to be my friend.
The anti-social impact of mobile phone use is increasing (see: The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media) but it’s only part of the problem.
All of this, in my mind, adds up to a rate of diminishing return when it comes to so-called social interaction. We seem to be moving towards an increasingly connected and yet far less truly social population. Am I wrong or am I really being anti-social?
No I think you are correct about facebook and about social interaction. “Lunch” has become an opportunity to get together and use smartphones over a meal. And it has been way too long since I saw anything interesting on facebook from my real friends. It’s just not as interesting anymore. It was a powerful tool for awhile and I felt compelled to check it — but now I actually forget about it and go on mostly to monitor my business page.
Hi Tni 🙂
How do you cut out the noise? And does your business page generate real business for you?
Steve
Stephen:
GREAT blog post! I really enjoyed it and it inspired me to write this morning’s blog on something along the same lines… It’s an important trend to note that people are reaching certain “expression” limits in social media today. The question is, where does the future go – larger, with more friends, or smaller with fewer. Thanks for starting this conversation!
If you’re interested, my post is “To be, nor Not to Be, Socially Assimilated” at http://www.matthewferrara.com/rssfeed/social_borg/
– Matthew
Thanks Matthew!! Heading over to your blog now 🙂
We are living in the darkest time of our history and we do not know how to truly connect. Yes, humanity is now a robotic race filled with Sheeple primitive mentality. Shallow and Numb is the NEW DEEP.
Now that’s a way to describe it! 🙂 I was at a BBQ this weekend and saw people fill any conversational pause with a check of their mobile phone. It really has become something that comes between real conversation.
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