As I’ve written about many times before, Facebook has long since passed the mark where it was my number one site to surf and spend time on. Just last month, others began echoing my thoughts and now Jason Goldberg wonders if people aren’t suffering from Facebook Fatigue. I, for one, think this is a serious problem that Facebook needs to wake up to and learn from.
It’d be interesting to plot a timeline from when people originally signed up on Facebook to the point where they grew tired and jaded with it. I know I signed up back in mid 2004, long before it became a “hit” and media darling. Many of my friends were in that early wave as well, which simply shows that we were at the perfect age group back then for Facebook. Already a few years into college, looking for something to keep us all in touch with each other, etc. However, by mid 2007, only a small handful of us still used Facebook on a daily basis. That’s about a three year arc there from “OMG, you HAVE to check out this new site called Facebook!” to “Eh, I checked my wall posts last Monday…I can wait a few more days until I check them again.”
Now Facebook started shooting through the stratosphere sometime around mid 2005, if I recall correctly. So if the same three year arc holds true, we’ll soon start seeing a much larger number of discontent Facebook users start chiming in that they too no longer use Facebook for everything under the sun. Thus, with each passing month that small voice will grow a few decibels louder. Does this mean Facebook is in danger of losing visitors? Hardly. There are far more people still joining Facebook than leaving it, but that doesn’t mean that Facebook should entirely write off this growing minority of ex-users. There’s something of value in what they’re saying.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that 90% of Facebook applications are nothing more than spammy, pointless pieces of crap which do nothing but turn people off to using apps. As more and more people realize this, they grow sick of sifting through them all and just write off Facebook altogether. Hell, the recent comments section down on the sidebar is all the proof you need that more and more people are starting to really hate these stupid application. Facebook was behind the curve on the News Feeds. They were behind the curve on Beacon. They can’t afford to be behind the curve on Application Hate as well.
But the other side of the problem is that, well, Facebook’s original users are growing up. We’re out of college now. We’re starting to settle down with jobs, families, lives of our own. We don’t really need to check out pictures from the latest frat party or constantly refresh the page of the girl we’re stalking…I, uh, mean “courting” in order to see if she’s changed her status recently. Hell, many of us simply don’t have the time to do that stuff! Trying to make it in the “real world” will do that to ya!
So what does this all mean for Facebook? Well, for starters, there’s nothing they can do about the people who aren’t using Facebook due to Life getting in their way. Like the tobacco industry, the only thing they can do to stem the loss is replace the older people with fresh meat. Which means, they need to steak more people away from Myspace and make sure that high schoolers who are going into college are switching over to Facebook. And if recent numbers (and my own little brothers!) are any indication, Facebook’s doing a pretty good job at this.
However, Facebook needs to make sure they’re not turning a blind eye to all the people who are leaving and writing them off as “acceptable” losses due to age, etc. A growing number of people, from high schoolers up to baby boomers, are leaving due to spammy and over-intrusive apps and if Facebook doesn’t address this problem seriously and quickly, that number will grow even more rapidly than it is now. Facebook Fatigue won’t just be for the people in their late 20s, it’ll be for anybody with a pulse and that’s something that Facebook seriously can’t afford.
[via Web Community Forum]
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