Facebook and diminishing returns…
Apr 27th 2008NiaLLLarkinSocial networks & Social software & autistic social software & autisticsocialsoftware & facebook & flow & hardproblems & privacy & relevantm & reputation & socially inept & socialprivacy & socialsoftware
From here:
The problem that I’m seeing with most of the current social networks is that 90% of the time spent on those social networks is work that is done in order to maintain currency, keep content fresh, and continue building a sprawling network of friends and raise popularity.
So, what does that mean? What it boils down to is this: If you are working for your social network instead of your social network working for you, you my friend, are standing on top of a classic MMO-style treadmill grind.
I have bobbed in and out of various social networks and there is something that every single one of them had in common: for me to gain any value from that network, I had to go out of my way to perform repetitive, out-of-band tasks just to gain any value from the network. Having been the victim of many a MMO treadmill grind, I recognize an infinite loop of horse poo when I see it, so I bailed.
I have yet to find a measurable value in Facebook or any of a dozen other social networks I’ve played with.At some point, someone is going to get it “right”, and there will be a social network that gives us tremendous value without us having to sacrifice for the cause, and all of the apologists using MySpace, Facebook, and the others who don’t know they’re apologists will flee to the new network in droves.
2 Comments »
Robin Blandford on 27 Apr 2008 at 7:50 pm #
Sounds about right Niall.
What’s an MMO? Can’t find a ref to it. It’s an multiplayer online game right?
Niall Larkin on 28 Apr 2008 at 10:49 am #
On a tangent that question you asked goes right to the heart of one of the main reasons I started blogging. Having no definition of MMO in the above blogpost was a bit slapdash of me. And its also a sign i’m loosening up in my writing. One of my personal aims in writing this blog was to learn to let go of the highly constrained style of writing I learned when I was a science and tech writer for H.W. Wilson. That means occasionally letting typos stay as typos. But more importantly letting some sentences and paragraphs hang together in a loose ill-defined informal conversational structure.
Its been a long slow process of letting go. I’ve come to believe its much easier to learn something new, than unlearn something you’ve practiced so much as to make it become second nature. The style and structure I had when I first started blogging was only suitable to and digestible by the small audience of academics who insisted on a dry and constrained style.
My sincere apologies for the sloppiness that is an inevitable part of the process of reversing these instincts. And my sincere gratitude for your patience and assistance where its needed.
This time, I think the pendulum swung a little far and I appreciate you nudging me back on course.
I don’t exactly know what an MMO is. It wasn’t defined in the original blog post either. (These blogging types are sooo unprofessional). But I think you are on the money with the multiplayer online game like World of Warcraft. Perhaps MMO is a diminuitive of MMORPG- a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game?