Putting aside Robert Scoble’s woe-is-me troubles with Facebook, one thing I’ve wondered about recently is whether or not Facebook is losing its cachet whilst the amount of registered users edges on the brink of 60 million.
BusinessWeek, for instance, cited Facebook Fatigue together of “Ten Likely Events in 2008”.
“Social network fatigue will set in as people tire of getting yet one more invitation from so-called friends to hitch yet one more social network. And, within the wake of Facebook’s fumbled social ads initiative, it’ll become even more apparent there’s no obvious thanks to pitching products on these sites without turning off members. Social features will wend their way into all types of Web services, from search to news, but the gold rush in social networks themselves will begin to wane.”
Meanwhile, high-profile bloggers like Loren Feldman have decided to steer faraway from Facebook, while Hugh MacLeod was brooding about “axing” Facebook before he was anointed the U.K. ‘s Facebook King by the Guardian. Personally, Facebook seems less interesting. I visit less often, and therefore the only two things I find really useful are the e-mail and standing components.
So what’s happening, and does it suggest anything aside from the people that embraced Facebook early have just grown uninterested in it and moved on to subsequent exciting things – be it Twitter, Seesmic, etc.?
It probably means nothing. It’s likely just a symbol that Facebook has moved into the mainstream while those before the pack are already able to advance. Another reason might be the advancement in smartphone technology. With a lot of interesting games and other social media applications like Instagram, tinder, telegram, people have moved to explore such exciting things. Still, it’s interesting to observe people actually get off the Facebook bandwagon given everyone was so hooked into it not goodbye ago.
Question: what happens to all or any of your Facebook data once you opt to go away. If you kill your profile, does your data disappear too or does it stay alive somewhere within the bowels of Facebook?
