

Facebook/Twitter too shall pass - CalmQuiet
http://rarestblog.com/2009/05/facebooktwitter-too-shall-pass/

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pj
I suppose I am one of only a few here who agrees with the author. He calls
them fashions, I'd call them fads. They are fads, like the pet rocks and
beanie babies and friendster and on and on. There will probably be die hards
forever, but innovation won't stop and there will be newer and better ways to
communicate in the future, so these new things will become old, just like
newspapers and magazines and television...

Facebook and Twitter actually damage real world interactions from what I have
seen. Before facebook, when you saw someone, you had a conversation with them
and you could make small talk filling in the gaps of what has happened since
the last time you met.

Now, people say, "Why are you asking if I'm dating someone, why don't you look
at my facebook page?" It's like you have to go catch up with someone's
facebook page before you meet them.

I don't know maybe it is something about a particular kind of mind. I don't
hate FB or Twitter, but I don't understand the real value. Maybe there is real
value that can be gotten, I don't know... I don't really use them too much.

I suppose the author's point though is that he doesn't like Facebook and
Twitter because they are just more of the same stuff in real life. In real
life, people are boring and on Facebook and Twitter, there's just more of that
same boring kind of interaction. I wonder if he were to find interesting
friends in real life and interact with them online would it make his
impression of facebook and twitter different? A lot of people I admire/respect
use twitter and facebook, so there has to be something there, they just aren't
for me. But neither is WOW or Shoots and Ladders or TV or reading romance
novels. Doesn't make those things bad, just "not for me." There's no reason to
believe that same "not for me" can't apply to things lots of people find
popular on the internet too.

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daleharvey
Article isnt saying much, and pretty much misses the point of social
networking in general.

there is a huge gap between your friends that you talk to every day, and long
lost strangers you havent seen in 20+ years. not only that there is a
difference between the amount and type of information thats exchanged online /
face to face.

facebook / twitter etc enable the type of information exchange that people
have been trying to do since forever, in a better way.

the idea that they will just quietly pass through when didnt some study put
facebook as 90% of internet time somewhere recently? just a bit off base.

~~~
davidw
> there is a huge gap between your friends that you talk to every day, and
> long lost strangers you havent seen in 20+ years.

The Cynic: Yeah, you care enough to stay in touch with one, and not so much in
the other case. Sure, it might be kind of fun to catch up, and in some cases
renew a friendship, but generally if you'd cared, you would have stayed in
touch anyway.

~~~
daleharvey
exactly, I have various levels of "connections",

for my close friends facebook / twitter is useful for passive information,
they might say they watched a film and it wasnt great, I dont discuss every
film my friends have ever watched, but I would take into consideration their
opinion.

For friends that I dont live nearby, I can keep track of what they are up to,
say hello once in a while, and not lose track of them for 20+ years, then when
they or I have time to go visit I know where to get in contact.

I have people that I meet through the work I do, I want to know what they are
working on, if they are working on something cool that I am interested in then
I find out.

for people I dont even know but seem to consistently talk about things I am
interesting in then I dont need to ask for them to send me a weekly update
email

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anatoly
I've been writing a blog for 8 years. I'll probably be writing one 10 years
from now.

Facebook? Not so much. Twitter? It'll probably pass in a few years.

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dgallagher
Do you think you'll still be using Facebook, and/or Twitter, 10 years from
now?

~~~
CalmQuiet
If I had the genius to be able to conceive the next quantum leap in social web
processes then I'd be able to answer this question. How many of us could
envision the impact of a FB or Tw even 5 years ago?

~~~
TomOfTTB
I think I could. 5 years ago Friendster was popular and people were talking
about blogs and rss. Facebook and Twitter are just iterations of those same
concepts.

Which is my answer to the original question. I think the same concepts will be
around 10 years from now but on the question of "will it still be Facebook and
Twitter" I think that all depends on how well they deal with the issues that
still plague these services (most notably the signal-to-noise ratio on both
services)

One way or the other I think the idea of broadcasting information about
yourself and having others be able to subscribe to that is here to stay..

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utx00
"I’m not surprised to see my cousin use such things as she’s a “people person”
- she always wants to be a center of attention - that validates her existence.
Don’t get me wrong - I don’t condemn her"

well, as long as he doesn't condemn her.

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greengirl512
His main argument seems to be "I don't like it, therefore eventually people
will stop doing it." Just because he doesn't see a point to social networking
doesn't mean that everybody feels that way.

~~~
HSO
I for one am with him on this. Just yesterday deleted my second FB account,
just don't see the point of it. This whole social networking thing feels like
high-school all over (might have sth to do with connecting to old high-school
people, but not just). Generally, I find those messages about who thinks what
about what and does what right now, eh, embarrassing. It's like a 3-year old
saying "look at me, Mum". Still, I don't think they will fade. There is a
large segment of humanity that enjoys just this behavior. I also think there
is a cultural element here, although this is simply a hunch, no data on that.

~~~
Tichy
Then Twitter might be for you, it is not as enforced as FB - you don't have to
pretend to be friends just to follow somebody's timeline.

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shadytrees
Sarcastically going through Twitter Trends is about as strong an argument as
the xkcd character shouting "Stop having fun!" (<http://xkcd.com/359/>)

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vorador
Remember that twitter craze we experienced on hn one month ago ? It passed.

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TweedHeads
"you’ve been tricked into thinking that it is important."

The power of marketing...

...and ten stories on TC's frontpage per day.

~~~
trezor
While I agree with your point, I have to admit I know absolutely noone who
reads techcrunch or are even aware of its existence. Only reason I even know
about it is that people here keep on yammering about it constantly.

I think you might have been tricked into thinking techcrunch is important.
Maybe by the power of marketing? ;)

~~~
TweedHeads
PR submarines are not only related to the web. They run on tv, radio,
newspapers, etc.

Never underestimate the power of a PR agency, and money, lots of money.

TC is just one of the most known propaganda hubs on the web.

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Tichy
He thinks he is so smart, but has not yet realized that what the media
portrays Twitter to be is not necessarily what the users perceive it to be.

Edit: to clarify, it seems to me he based his assessment of Twitter on what
the media writes about Twitter, not on real knowledge of Twitter.

