Facebook: seeing the bubble from the outside

Note: This post is over a year and a half old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information.

The debacle over Facebook has made us all take a look at the blogosphere’s connection to the “real” world. How in touch are those inside of the “web 2.0″ bubble? How many times can I use quotation marks in a “post”? Wait and see.

What bloggers had originally lauded as a step forward in the social aspect of the online networking site was immediately regarded as an affront to privacy by the Facebook community. It’s a reflection of the fact that the minority of internet users directly involved in creating a more interactive web (2.0) do not represent the goals and ideals of the current internet community. It’s sad, but it’s true. Facebook users are making that point loud and clear. They don’t want a site that’s as social as we can make it. They want glorified email interaction.

At the same time we’re seeing media sharing sites popping up like crazy. Photos to begin with, music and movies now. There are several determining factors in how the sites are responded to. First, integration with a larger ecosystem (i.e. Myspace or Facebook). Then, and very importantly, their ease of use and intuitive interface, which often boils down to how much they resemble interfaces that people have already come to know and love. Which doesn’t leave a lot of room for innovation if you want to make the big time. Also, the site has to appeal to a mass audience, not just techies.

Facebook may have had innovation and ease of use in mind, but they ignored what could basically be called the “dumbing down” process that makes the big players mass consumable. The full privacy options should have been the default, and those in the know should have been able to enable them. Granted, it almost defeats the entire purpose of the innovation, and would satisfy none of the rest of us, but it would have been to their advantage when it came to their members.

One of my interns brought up the point that it was slightly humorous that of all the things that have been going on lately, this is what sparked a 600,000 person protest. And one that organized in just a couple of days. Which speaks to the power of online social networking in general. The energy is there, it just needs to be harnessed in productive ways.

The last couple of days have had me realizing that the web is not on the verge of becoming the utopia that I’ve always dreamed of. There are too many human beings involved for that to ever happen. All of this software looks and works great until we get in there and start fighting and harassing and being idiots. And the snafu with Digg has got me down, for multiple reasons. First off, the idea that things are not as democratic as they seemed burst my idealism bubble, and then the response on both sides was, well, disappointing.

All in all, what I’m rapidly coming to realize is that the bubble is far smaller than I want to think. 600,000 students don’t seem to share my dream. The future may be farther away than I thought.

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  1. Ross Johnson 09.08.06 / 9am

    I honestly don’t understand the social networking scene as well as I wished. With important industry leaders all over the world saying that it is THE next big online marketing explosion, I see very few ways to harness it for methods other than it’s original intention (for the most part, connecting teenagers/early twenties to their friends).

    I don’t see promoting that many business through it, nor finding a job or employee’s through the current outlets (refering mostly to myspace and facebook).

    My best effort thus far was coming up with the idea to create a myspace page for a client that had a large number of University of Michigan students, and trying to friend those in groups related to the UofM. The results still have been questionable.