My own use of facebook is probably a-typical, but I have used it to reconnect with a bunch of people that I'd lost touch with over the years, now that that has happened I'm no longer an active user, we communicate using different media now.
No need for me to visit facebook to keep in touch, email, the phone and so on work just fine.
Many people find Facebook easier to use than email - if you're on a Windows box, Facebook messaging is sexier and sleeker than either Gmail or Outlook. Facebook's also done a brilliant thing with its Phone Book. If I access it from a mobile device, it lists the phone numbers of all my friends.
I hope I'm not the only one who doesn't care how old anyone else is. So what if your parents (or your kids, or your teachers, or your employer, or anyone else is on Facebook).
The guidelines of Facebook oughta be the same as the guidelines of hn which oughta be the same as the guidelines of kindergarden. Don't post anything you'd be embarassed if anyone else saw and don't say anything online you wouldn't say in person.
Those crazy kids are a fickle bunch, and throughout history they've wanted to not be where their parents hang out.
But it looks like Facebook is trying to grow past it's original niche into the online identity provider for all. Which means someone else will have to fill the void to give kids a chance to discuss sex, drugs, and whatever other startling discoveries they seem to make on a daily basis.
A quick search reveals many people in my network who post photos of drug use despite having their parents as friends. Methinks some privacy control has been taken advantage of.
Those crazy kids are a fickle bunch, and throughout history they've wanted to not be where their parents hang out.
But with Facebook the two groups are separate. Think of it as a house: It's all one place, but each group has their privacy. The parents can have a dinner party upstairs while the kids get drunk and party in the basement.
The trouble is it is not only you that has to follow those guidelines. Friends can put up pictures of you and tag you. Not all content about you is placed there by you.
I think the average person will find it easier to socialise on two different sites or possibly have two different facebook identities, rather than altering the settings so that they can make sure that relatives can't see pictures of them looking silly or doing things that they wouldn't approve of.
Because it's a lot easier to create two separate IDs and log in and out between the two of them, or to bookmark two separate sites in the hopes that the same friends use both of them and that the interface is just as easy to use on both of them or that the features are equally good on both. Come on.
I'm not suggesting that the same friends use both of them, I'm suggesting that the youth will partition their social lives like they already do.
You have your friends and you have your family. You want your granny to be able to see the pictures your mum took, but you don't want your mum to know you are friends with bobby that she disapproves of.
Which is why you restrict access to your tagged photos. Let people see photos you upload but not photos tagged of you, and you maintain absolute control over your profile.
Calculating the aggregate age of all facebook users is irrelevant since the only people who matter to you on the site are your "friends". So my 15 year old cousin's friends are mostly her real world peers and her 45 year old dad's friends are mostly her peers. While there is a tiny overlap, it wouldn't be considered significant.
It isn't like a bunch of old people are now trying to hang out with the young cool kids causing the entire system to be less cool.
The middle-aged crowd is the one with the money. Middle-aged housewives are the ones with the money to spend, and the time to discover new things to spend on. This is why so much of the retail world is aimed at them. As a result, much of our culture is distorted by the lens of their viewpoint. I think a lot of youthful rebellion of recent decades has been changed by this.
One middle aged woman I spoke to on the plane noted that there is a need to be able to "compartmentalize" one's online social networking, much as one does this for work. Her country club employees (where she works) have Facebook profiles which she uses to try and make contacts for new sales, and she finds that some of her fellow early 20's employees have Spring Break pictures only a few clicks away from hers. Not the best thing for her. I suggested LinkedIn, but this doesn't quite work for what she has in mind.
Anyone know of a decent firefox extension for sending print articles back to the regular web page? I keep my browser maxed on a 1920x1200 monitor, so these are unreadable (though they're great on my Pre). I'd rather have ads and pictures than a giant wall of text, especially since I have adblock, but is there anyone else who shares that need?
The 34-54 age-group is a 20-years interval (28%) versus 24-34, which is a 10-years interval (25%). In other words, there are almost twice as many users in the 24-34 interval as either in the 34-44 or the 44-54 intervals (contrary to what the article states). Am I missing something ?
I'm one of those middle-aged users of Facebook. What I find appalling about Facebook is how much its context changes users' online behavior. Many of the people on my friends list of Facebook are people I also know from specialized, topical email lists. On the email lists, the people are serious and thoughtful, but on Facebook some of the same people let loose with a bajillion "What grocery produce section vegetable are you?" quizzes and endless flair and bling and mafia wars. My friends are less my friends, and more of an annoyance, on the Facebook platform. Facebook turns adults into kids.
So although I appreciate Facebook for linking me up to a few former classmates from childhood (my first Facebook friend was one such), if I want to do what I really enjoy, as a grown-up adult, I look for those same friends in other contexts. And that, I think, is why Facebook is extremely unlikely to build a business model through which it can gain more revenue per user than it has expenses per user to serve up cute photographs and videos.
23 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 56.7 ms ] threadAge as a signifier in itself is slipping.
No need for me to visit facebook to keep in touch, email, the phone and so on work just fine.
The guidelines of Facebook oughta be the same as the guidelines of hn which oughta be the same as the guidelines of kindergarden. Don't post anything you'd be embarassed if anyone else saw and don't say anything online you wouldn't say in person.
But it looks like Facebook is trying to grow past it's original niche into the online identity provider for all. Which means someone else will have to fill the void to give kids a chance to discuss sex, drugs, and whatever other startling discoveries they seem to make on a daily basis.
Those crazy kids are a fickle bunch, and throughout history they've wanted to not be where their parents hang out.
But with Facebook the two groups are separate. Think of it as a house: It's all one place, but each group has their privacy. The parents can have a dinner party upstairs while the kids get drunk and party in the basement.
You have your friends and you have your family. You want your granny to be able to see the pictures your mum took, but you don't want your mum to know you are friends with bobby that she disapproves of.
It isn't like a bunch of old people are now trying to hang out with the young cool kids causing the entire system to be less cool.
One middle aged woman I spoke to on the plane noted that there is a need to be able to "compartmentalize" one's online social networking, much as one does this for work. Her country club employees (where she works) have Facebook profiles which she uses to try and make contacts for new sales, and she finds that some of her fellow early 20's employees have Spring Break pictures only a few clicks away from hers. Not the best thing for her. I suggested LinkedIn, but this doesn't quite work for what she has in mind.
So although I appreciate Facebook for linking me up to a few former classmates from childhood (my first Facebook friend was one such), if I want to do what I really enjoy, as a grown-up adult, I look for those same friends in other contexts. And that, I think, is why Facebook is extremely unlikely to build a business model through which it can gain more revenue per user than it has expenses per user to serve up cute photographs and videos.