A Social Situation

            Once my family finally decided to invite the Internet into our home, I spent most of my time online playing games. As I grew older, I grew more social. Upon entering high school I wanted to stay connected with my friends, personal cell phones were forbidden, and giving people your home number was both lame and a hassle.  Then came the social networks, my search for the right one was similar to that of Goldilocks in the house of the Three Bears.  

First there was Xanga, a network that focused more on blogging than connecting with friends. Sure, you could comment on your friend’s posts, but it felt awkward reaching out to someone that way.  This porridge is too hot.  After Xanga was MySpace, tailored to connecting with people but extremely customizable.  This meant that depending on how much a user saturated their profile with videos, music, pictures and other content, it would take longer to load, which in turn made me frustrated because our Internet connection was weak.   This porridge is too cold.  Finally there was Facebook.  Facebook had a cookie cutter profile outline that was not customizable, which first detested me but I grew to love it.  Facebook also gave users the opportunity to interact with each other, share videos and pictures, in an organized fashion.  Ahhh, just right.

To be honest, I didn’t believe in the “staying power” of Facebook.  I thought that everyone would move on to the next better and bigger network in a couple of months.  That’s the way it worked in the past, why wouldn’t it happen now?  Facebook lasted because it played off of some basic human needs, and continued to be user friendly.  Facebook is a paradise of equality and anonymity, an electronic commune (Grossman 2010).   Mark Zuckerberg constructed Facebook to play off of our need to stay connected with those we care about, but at the same time wanted it to be open and fair  (Kirkpatrick 2010).   Suddenly, everyone’s opinion matters, and holds equal weight.  Everyone is the same on Facebook, which is one of its basic appeals.  Zuckerberg may be somewhat socially awkward, but has pegged what people want in a social network through trial and error (Kirkpatrick, 2010).  Facebook has made it so easy to remain consistently connected to people in your network, even if it’s not your immediate network, that even the term “Facebook” has worked it’s way into everyday vocabulary as a verb, like ‘Xerox’ and ‘Kleenex’ did. “When I get home, I’ll Facebook you that video.” Or “My phone isn’t working so Facebook me if you want to hang out.”  Facebook has had such an impact on the Internet that a Facebook membership “is becoming the Internet equivalent of a passport” (Grossman 2010).

Recently, Facebook has become the subject of concern in the media.  It has been accused of violating privacy, tearing users away from physical connections with their friends, and even labeled as an addiction (Grossman 2010).  However, even with all these criticisms, Facebook is currently growing at a rate of about 700,000 people a day (Grossman 2010).  So what happens when Facebook runs out of people? It’ll move on to connecting people in different ways.  On Wednesday, April 11, Facebook announced the start of “Groups for Schools” a way to connect with people specifically in your school to share lectures, notes, and to stimulate discussion outside of the classroom (Tsukayama 2012).  It could also expand into other venues of media, like deciding what to watch on TV based on what your friends are watching (Kirkpatrick 2010).

In my opinion, Facebook is a successful company because Zuckerberg doesn’t allow them to run like any other business.  They put all their focus on their users, and roll with the punches.  Facebook has helped me procrastinate on many a homework assignment, maybe even this one, but has also kept me in touch with friends I was afraid I would lose when moving through different stages in my life.  For that, I am thankful, and is also why Facebook, for me, is just right.

Sources

Grossman, Lev. 2010. Person of the Year 2010: Mark Zuckerberg. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036 683_2037183,00.html

Kirkpatrick, D. (2010). The Facebook Effect (pp. 287 – 333). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Tsukayama, Haley. 2012. Facebook Introduces ‘Groups for Schools’. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/facebook-introduces-groups-for-schools/2012/04/12/gIQAOx18CT_story.html