DISQUS

Webomatica · 2 years ago

I do largely agree with you. I as well recently signed up for facebook (rather showing my age myself) and I don't identify with the colleges and highschool I went to. In fact, I can't even remember who a lot of those people are anymore. And how about: friend of spouse or friend of children? No, I guess Facebook is for people much younger, but too old for MySpace.

Neil · 2 years ago

Scott

Facebook really is worth all the attention it now has, but it's the early twenty-somethings that currently reap all the benefits from the service.

I could use Facebook all day without becoming bored. It enables me to communicate more easily with my friends, so much so that I honestly couldn't imagine a social life without Facebook now. If you want to experience this, you have to build up a network of people that you'd communicate with regularly in the offline world even if Facebook wasn't there. Otherwise you won't use Facebook enough to realise how it makes your life easier to manage, i.e. birthdays, events, keeping in touch etc.

You said you prefer to use blogs to keep in touch with friends - but would you use a blog post/comment to ask someone if they were still interested in going for a drink later on that day? That's how I use Facebook.

I've experienced older generations trying to get into Facebook - the Jobster.com CEO and CTO both added me as a friend once they announced their exclusive career partnership with Zuckerberg's network - but only one of them acted like he knew anything about Facebook etiquette. Age really does make a difference.

Scott Karp · 2 years ago

Neil,

"You said you prefer to use blogs to keep in touch with friends - but would you use a blog post/comment to ask someone if they were still interested in going for a drink later on that day?"

There are other proven applications for this, like email, IM, and, yes, even Twitter. Part of the challenge for Facebook and people over 22 is not trying to get people to change their deeply entrenched behavior.

But it has a lot to do with the more subtle signals. Facebook is trying to be a one-size-fits-all platform with its core functionality -- and one size just doesn't fit all. The stance that people over 22 just "don't get" how to use it is not going to grow the user base.

Eric · 2 years ago

Heck, I'm 24 and I don't find Facebook nearly as useful as I no doubt would have a couple of years ago in college. (I do wish it had been around when I was in college though, because it would have been useful to me then). I use it, but my life doesn't revolve around it the way it does for some of my younger college-aged friends.

What it says to me is that there really isn't "one social network to rule them all". I don't think that Facebook can change itself too much with losing some its appeal to its core of college students. So I suspect that there's probably room in the market for one or two more runaway hits that cater to different demographics - my prediction is that we'll see it emerge in the next year or two, as many of the "facebook generation" graduate, enter the real world, and find their social networks have changed.

leo · 2 years ago

"What struck me was the questionable relevance of some of these ads, particularly given that I’m not in high school"

Apparently acne ads are all the rage...

Oliver Dueck · 2 years ago

I think a lot of these complaints are pretty much baseless. Remember that Facebook is a "social" network. If you're a social person, Facebook will be of value to you. I'm 27, and am seeing more and more people my age and older using Facebook, and I haven't heard any complaints from them.

Regarding the "How do you know..." checkboxes, I think they cover a pretty wide variety of choices, and you can also enter specifics once you choose one of them.

I also find it hard to believe that none of the boxes on the Personal page pertain to you. You don't watch movies or listen to music? Do thirty year olds not have favorite quotes?

I'm sure you and the other Facebook naysayers have a somewhat valid point, but without offering any solutions, you just sound whiny.

Scott Karp · 2 years ago

Oliver,

I think Facebook is an elegantly designed application and that Facebook Platform is a brilliant move.

But that doesn't change the fact that Facebook needs to update its core applications.

If web services took your "good enough"/suck it up attitude, they'd never take off. That's not how Facebook succeeded with its original student users. Great applications make everything effortless and don't force users to compromise.

Oliver Dueck · 2 years ago

Don't get me wrong, I agree that Facebook will need to adjust itself as the average age of its userbase increases. After all, a lot of its current growth is among non-college-age people. However, I just don't think that the specific criticisms that you've offered are really that important.

I'm curious what you think should be added to the "how do you know..." screen. Clearly, some of the options are targeted specifically to students, and some are useless ("We hooked up." - I've never seen that one used other than as a joke). Similarly, I don't see the personal details as being that college-centric, either.

And believe me, my attitude is not of the good enough/suck it up nature. I just want to see some suggestions for solutions to the issue at hand.

Micah Davis · 2 years ago

Scott...kudos for the post! Neil, Eric and Oliver...you each made some great points.! After browsing the comments though...I would like to make a remark on another aspect of Facebook and this post in particular...the ads.

I've been on Facebook since shortly after it launched (I'm only a couple of years out of college). After several years, I have only clicked on *ONE* ad during that entire time (I've also polled several dozen friends on this and they say a lot of the same thing). Now while I do understand the "branding and reach" element of a company's advertising, I will mention that...just as with Scott's ad...I do get a lot of very not-so-relevant ads on my profile and I have a TON of data filled in on it.

With that being said, I'm curious as to how advertising on Social Networks can improve. After all, the internet has boasted its advertising as offering RELEVANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY and, imo, has only really delivered on the latter of the 2 promises (even though it has done better on relevance than other mediums but it's still not all that relevant).

Anyhow, just curious as to some thoughts on ways to improve online ads on social networks.

Micah