Ok, it’s been about one month since I joined Facebook and here are some of my thoughts:
1. I’m getting bored of it. Fast. I’m not logging on as much as I used to. There’s only so many “friends” you can add to your list. And some of them aren’t exactly your “friends” either. As someone once said: “Adding friends on your Facebook is a way of linking up with people you otherwise wouldn’t bother to meet up with in real life.”
2. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg should have cashed in on the US$15 billion when he had the chance to. If people ever get bored of Facebook in a hurry and move on to the “next big thing”, that decision might turn out to be the biggest blunder in the history of Silicon Valley. Or even in the history of business.
3. 90% of the apps on Facebook are pretty dumb. Ok, make that 95%. Why add an app just to take a six-question test which tells you something about yourself which you absolutely do NOT need to know? (e.g. What type of flower are you?)
4. What’s with the “groups” thingy? That’s one thing I never understood. So you join a group, say “Lovers of Roti Prata Unite”, and it’s like…what next? I see people joining groups, and nothing much else happens. Nobody posts anything in the discussion board, so what exactly is the reason for joining the group? What’s the deal here?
5. DON’T YOU JUST HATE APPS WHICH TRICK YOU INTO INVITING SOMETHING LIKE 20 FRIENDS IN ORDER TO SEE YOUR QUIZ RESULTS OR TO PROCEED ANY FURTHER?!? That’s like the No. 1 most irritating aspect of Facebook apps. It’s like a pyramid-selling scam y’know.
6. As I said before, Facebook is basically the functionality of emailing, twittering, instant messaging, photo-sharing, video-sharing, quiz-taking, virtual dating/flirting, friend-searching, and much more all rolled into one massive social networking site. Quite impressive.
7. I’m always amazed at how the pictures in an album load so quickly. I can never figure out how they did that!
8. You’ve got to give Facebook due credit. It’s by far the best way in the world to link up with old schoolmates and friends. It’s amazing the kind of people you can manage to locate on Facebook. Almost everyone is on it!
9. One of the most amazing features of Facebook, in my opinion, is the ability to upload photos of your friends and tag them, so that the photos also goes into their personal list of photos (but not uploaded by them). And you can even hover your cursor over the specific person’s face and know the name of that face (provided it was properly tagged). Truly amazing.
10. Will people ever get tired of Facebook and move on to something else? Will that day ever come? Hey, don’t bet against that from happening. No doubt it is highly improbable, and I’m not saying that it will happen, but look what happened to ICQ after MSN came along. Nobody thought MSN could ever replace ICQ did they? And look at what happened to Yahoo after Google came along. And look what happened to Friendster after MySpace and Facebook came along. Who’d ever thought something even better than Friendster would come and sweep us off our feet? Internet users are a fickle bunch. When they move on to something better, they move in droves. I’m not saying it’s likely to happen, but I’m saying there’s always that possibility.
And tell me if you don’t already start to feel that Facebook is starting to get slightly less fun than it used to be…
Aiya, just for the fun of it…dun get too serious ;)
I understand. I’m getting bored of Facebook as well. And I just only created the account 2 days ago! =D
Aiyah, Am slightly bored too, so I try not to go in too often. Or I’ll just log in but don’t check it out so often. Most of the time I’m in to change status, look after my “pet” or watch Record TV.
Very good ending statement… your writing skill is really remarkable, Jem.
I had to admit that, after the initial thrill of Facebook, it all wears off after a while. (you came in at a time when I’m getting too busy for Facebook :P) And I haven’t got time to cancel all the subscriptions to apps that kept bombarding my email, “You’ve been Superpoked!” “You’re being attacked!!”, “XYZ has Slammed you real hard, baby!” Pretty annoying, if you asked me.
Having said that, there’re some good apps around. Visual Bookshelf, for one. I get to read a few good books because a good friend saw my “Want-to-read” list and she lends me those books. I love to read good reviews about books I’d read, which I might never have bothered to search for these reviews online. And I agree with you about the photos-tagging part (if you call it an app). Took me a few days to understand how come a friend’s photos actually add to my own…amazing. These are apps that make sense for me.
I’m still keeping my Facebook account to keep track of the occasional personal messages I get from long-missed friends.
In the end, all these IT-social-networking stuffs just boil down to one thing: friendship. Be it acquaintances, buddies, comrades, co-workers or soulmates. The apps are just the tidbits you share when good friends come together.
Ladylian: That’s FAST!
Marcus: Thanks for the kind words. And thanks also for sharing your thoughts. Your points are well-taken!