Tuesday 2 October 2007

The New Trend Is The Untrend: Facebook Suicide

I had heard this from someone only last week. Facebook suicide is apparently the new term for early adopters who have had enough with social networking and can't keep up with their latest 5000 friends and decide to get off the Facebook grid.

And now a new blog posting that guides us all through the process of how to quit facebook.

Is this the latest trend? The untrend? Disconnecting from the network? Well, i doubt things will go that far, but it does go to show that once something has crossed the chasm, the window of cool doesn't last all that long. Now the real question will become whether or not that impacts Facebook's business models and/or valuation.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And some of us gave up on the whole social networking thing before Facebook even showed up. After Diaryland, LinkedIn, Classmates, Graduates, MeetUp, OKCupid, Vox, 360, and MySpace, by the time the Facebook invites started peppering my inbox, that was it. MySpace was the beginning of the end with its Geocities 1996-era templates. Facebook, which wouldn't show me any links that anyone sent me unless I signed up first, didn't even get my email address.

Nav said...

I think this is just the pendulum swinging the other way. People are realising that it's both impossible and also pointless to try and manage hundreds of contacts, many of whom one has a very cursory connection with. Facebook and other social networking tools can have real value for maintaining/augmenting real-world connections - I think we're all just in the process of finding a balance.

Leigh said...

I would have to agree with you Nav...in a world where we are already in a 24/7 existence, some things will end up staying and some going.

Will Facebook be one of them? Most people i know are already saying they are somewhat bored and it's not holding a lot of value. How Facebook reacts to this and creates value will be the true test to see if it is the Google killer some people take it to be, or AOL all over again...

,, said...

I have a theory that everyone on Facebook Bebo etc secretly want to be Catholic and confess all about themelves to random strangers. Facebooks are like assholes and Crackberries - everyone has one

Leigh said...

Less about guilt i think (and trust me, next to Catholics, the Jews have got the guilt thing mastered) and more about celebrity...even micro celebrity.

As for as*holes, too true ;-)

 
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