Media reports in June 2011 predicted the end is nigh for Facebook as the number of people using the world’s most popular social networking site dropped for the second month in a row; indicating Facebook’s popularity may be waning and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ambitions for the site to hit one billion users are fading to a pipe dream. Fast forward two weeks and news reports are now reporting that Facebook has now 750 million active users (someone who logs on to the site at least once a month) and once again Zuckerberg’s ambition could become a reality.
These reports and the news regarding the launch of Google + (Google’s third attempt to create a social networking site) made me reflect on my social networking use and wonder why we are so keen to move on to the next ‘big thing’.
Like most people my age I have graduated from a succession of networking sites: Friends Reunited, WAYN and Myspace. For the last five years I have used Facebook coupled with brief dabbling with Twitter and LinkedIn. Five years is a very long time to be loyal to one organisation and fundamentally the same product, only my sofa and dishwasher have lasted the longer and given half the chance I would trade them in. In the same period, I have changed every utility provider, bank, car, phone and even supermarket in the quest for better value for money and increased convenience.
We as consumers have been conditioned to desire the new. Most mass market products are designed with a limited useful life; they become obsolete or non-functional after a planned period of time, with these periods becoming shorter and shorter. We know the swanky tablet computer we buy today will be an embarrassment in a years’ time and that when we drop our Ipod it’s likely to be cheaper to buy a new one that try and get it repaired. So as the innovators and cool kid migrate to the latest thing will the masses follow?
In the last five years Facebook has recorded and shared my engagement, wedding, birth of my daughter and countless birthday and other special occasions. As I receive my invite to join Google + and thank my one connection for letting me join their ‘circle’ I think about what is going to happen to my images and connections on Facebook. Do I really have the time to upload all my photos again? Will it be a chore or a joy to reconnect with all my contacts?
So I am left with a conundrum; do I join this new ‘circle’ and forsake my previous Facebook life, making my shared experiences disposable or do I remain loyal to Facebook for as long as my contacts are active users. Or should I take the opportunity to free myself from these sophisticated data collection tools whose aim is to get me to hang around for as long as possible while I am targeted with marketing communications.
Answers on a postcard please….
Charlotte Lystor - Lecturer in Marketing
University of Winchester