rambling thesis about facebook

so lagitane and i have been parleying about facebook, and since it's one of those rare occasions i committed e-thoughts to e-paper in some semi-coherent form at least, here's the transcript. i'm not sure i agree 100% with what i've said, or more precisely, the tone with which it is said, since i'm quite addicted to facebook so i must enjoy it in some small way.

lagitane:

what the h*** is this facebook thing all about?!

babymomma:

you're obviously struggling to see the point of it so far.

basically facebook, like any other social networking site (and every time i mention facebook it is interchangeable with myspace etc.), is at its most powerful and, IMHO, only really works for social groups that meet in the real world - ie have a need to talk at least once every day. that's why it's such a draw for schoolchildren, students, 20 somethings and people whose work doesn't tie them to an office or a 9-5 (think actors, directors, scriptwriters, the unemployed etc). evidently, it's not exclusively the preserve of the young, but i suspect it tends to service their needs the most.

it's one-stop-shop-ness is one of the key benefits. it's a natural extension of both email and Instant Messenger, because the interface allows both one-to-one and one-to-many conversations, with the added bonus of being able to upload photographs, publish notes, import blogs and upload other networking apps for your whole social gang, immediate and extended, to see on one page. [separately, many IM, email, blogs, photo sharing sites offer superior service and better interfaces than facebook, but the convenience of doing everything in one place seems to be winning out.]

as a networking site, you can also use it see who knows who, and therefore who is popular (and cool) and who isn't. it's also creates the opportunity to use the network to add 'friend' after 'friend' and therefore increase your own aura of connectedness/ popularity/ coolness. but i think that only really works if you've met them in real life, so facebook becomes a public, post-event record of your real-world connections to people, and a way of expressing how many and what kind of people you like.

so what's the point?

to my mind, it's the 21st century equivalent of customising your bedroom wall/ school folder/ school bag. what it delivers isn't fundamentally new, it's just the medium that has changed. for decades people in society have sought ways of publicly expressing their personal tastes, identity and individuality with a view to impressing any other observer, casual or otherwise. facebook lets you do it in a considered manner so your virtual personality becomes the 'you' you wish you could be all the time. where bad hair days don't exist and you are never lost for wit... the premise is very alluring, particularly to young people who tend to care more passionately about what others think about them.

for facebook to really add value to your life, though, you have to have:
(a) time to waste socialising in the virtual world
(b) some latent need to express your individuality
(c) genuine need to interact with your social network on a daily basis.

without these three things, facebook will just be something to try out to see what the hype is all about and then quickly forgotten. within a few months i guarantee there will be a vast number of stagnant profiles - PLUs who have gone on to see what all the fuss is about, and then dropped it just as soon.

i'm sure the main reason you're probably unimpressed is because you're french, you have cool in your DNA so don't need to bother with all this.

lagitane:

as I suspected, it's just a virtual version of when we used to write in each other's notebooks at school...

well, so far it has put me back in touch with the wan**r that [censored] in hong kong and only told me 48 hours after the deed, leading me to believe I was [censored] for two days...so I suppose that's a positive!
am thinking of writing on his wall to warn all innocent ladies away...