Bah! Facebook!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
So there I was attending to my Facebook profile . Dutifully adding my favourite books and movies, adding Twitter and Flickr, browsing the fun social apps and then it hit me. What the hell am I doing spending my time and effort adding to the Facebook empire when my own website goes wanting?
Why would I limit myself to a closed, mini-version of the internet when the real one works just fine and is completely open?
Various pundits and commentators have shared opinions like all future business will be done on Facebook, or you'll miss out on your own future if you're not in Facebook, or your wife will let you know she's just given birth via Facebook (as long as you're in her friends list) and so on... Well, I have a theory about these sorts of comentators: they love to talk in absolutes and make grand sweeping proclamations. They love to talk about big numbers and big business; It makes them really excited, pay them no mind.
I've also been reading that Facebook is a great way to get exposure to your online app because of it's huge membership. So I guess that's Facebook's product: an audience. So the deal is if you sign up with facebook, they get to package you up in their product and sell your attention and in return you get to play with their system. Well I don't want to be part of their product, my attention is worth more, and frankly why would I play in their rather small garden when the forest is free?
So I'm following in the footsteps of Adrian , who has already opted out of Facebook, and I've decided to become a Facebook objector!
So I'm going to make my blog my profile - add my favourites, publish an activity log, add boxes for Flickr and Delicious, and so on. We can achieve the same sort of social ecosystem using our own blogs. We already do for cying out loud!
10 Comments
Nice one - I also deactivated my account this morning after managing to put up with it for two weeks.
Andrew you are invited to add your profile to the "Facebook Don't Do It" group on Facebook.
I wouldn't mind facebook, but parts of it are really really getting to be a pain. Like the fact you have to login all the time, no saved session. You can't block application requests. Etc. The games where fun, but they dot too demanding on time.
I just cut and paste the lists of things from other source. It's fun at first. But aspect of its walled garden are beginning to bore me. Today is the first time I have been back for a while. I figure the walled garden of my face book profile will die slowly.
I think you need to step back and realize that not everyone knows how to setup their own website. Facebook provides them with a way to socialize with their friends and alter what information they are sharing in an easy fashion. There are countless other apps out there that do the same thing, such as myspace, livejournal, etc. They're all small "gardens" when you look at the big picture. But they're easier gardens to play in then the bigger forest is.
Jimmy, I don't think that's true any more with services like blogger and so on.
How is blogger any different then facebook? It's still an application to socialize with your friends and keep people updated on your life.
at the very least my friends don't have to be members of Blogger to keep in touch
Not true. To post comments on a blogger.com run site you have to sign in with either a blogger/google account, or you're forced to post as "Other" or "Anonymous". I can't just go there and post as Jimmy w/o having an account first. Unless I state in the comment "Hey it's yer buddy Jimmy here!".
Commenting on Blogger aside, my original point still stands. There are many other options.
We don't all need to belong to the same closed community to create a social network.
I think I'm with Jimmy on this one, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog entry!
I've had a huge amount of friends track me down through the Book of Face despite being very visible on Google etc.
Can they use Google? I hope so ... Did they think to? Nope. If they HAD, would they have managed to find my contact page (PAINFULLY obvious to get to) and submit a simple contact form? Wishful thinking!
I'm a self-confessed Facebook nut, but your entry here has got me thinking that maybe my time is not being used to the best of my ability...
Right, can't sit about and chat, there are photos that need to be tagged. Hahahaha!