I found a post at Times Online talking about how some of the bigger social networking sites are dropping membership:
Could the party be over for the big social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo? Last month it emerged Facebook had suffered a 5% drop in members since December, according to Nielsen Online, the web analyst.
So the real question is are people move to other social networks or are they quiting the “scene”? The article speculates that people may be doing less posting because of the fear of party photos getting out. I disagree with that - the younger generation, in my opinion, is less concerned about their private vs. public image…I think they just feel like it is their image.
The story also talks about the almost impossible job of deleting a facebook profile. It appears you can deactivate - but not delete. That makes it uncomfortable for users who want to disconnect from the site.
Either way, it appears the honeymoon may be wanning and we have to deal with the reality of some of these sites. There is so much benefit to be had with the how interactions can happen - but it really about sites figuring out how to best mesh with the conversation and make it easier and better.
2 responses so far ↓
marysharp // March 20, 2008 at 8:32 am
What do you think about the networking sites like JuicyCampus.com? NPR and CNN are reporting about the skanky racist, sexist stuff that is being posted (anonymously, of course) about people (w/ their phone numbers) and efforts by legislatures to come up some way to prohibit libelous personal attacks.
tomaltman // March 21, 2008 at 8:11 am
I think they (the juicycampus like sites) are just emulating the analog world. Is it really any different than the old school National Enquirer or TMZ?
They are just taking something popular in mainstream media and giving it the web flair. It is normal in web world to “web 2.0″ or personalize each site - so to me it only makes sense they would start to do this.
I hate to see the government get involved…it doesn’t seem like they tried to shut down Jerry Springer or are trying to kill off TMZ. They just seem to get more scared when it has a www in front of it.
Good comment. Anyone else want to weigh in?
You must be logged in to post a comment.