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Facebook fatigue?

June 13, 2011

New figures released Monday report that Facebook, the popular social networking site, lost members in both the U.S. and Canada last month. [AFP]

Facebook had 687 million members at the start of June, said Inside Facebook, which closely tracks developments and trends at the Palo Alto, California-based social network.

Inside Facebook said overall growth at the social networking giant “has been lower than normal for the second month straight, which is unusual.”

Facebook gained 11.8 million members in May and 13.9 million in April — down from the usual 20 million new users a month seen in previous months, it said.

The United States lost nearly six million users in May, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it.

Meanwhile, in Great Britain, an estimated 100,000 Facebook users deactivated their accounts.

Internet psychologist Graham Jones predicted that Facebook users will suffer the same kind of ‘fatigue’ that comes whenever men and women get bored with trying anything that is new. He said: ‘People get terribly excited about something new and after a while the novelty wears off.

 


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I’m was never stupid enough to actually activate a Facebook account. My friends and I know how to get a hold of eachother and I dont have to pretend on how many friends I have.


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I deactivated last week. It pleases me that others are doing the same. I just got tired of the umpteen ways that FB tries to collect information about you. I’d just read an article about FB using facial recognition on the photos to help you find photos that have ‘friends’ in them. FB did offer a way to opt out, but I’ve gotten tired of all the features that need to be deactivated. It was easier just to delete my account. My online friends already know how to contact me without FB.


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Unfortunately, and like I always tell my kids: [b]Once it’s uploaded, it is there forever.[/b]


That face recognition stuff, I think, gave some people a peek behind the curtain and (rightly) scared them off.


Of course, I’m a nut and don’t trust Google either, so take it with a grain of salt.


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Anyone noticed the contact info for everyone these days?

Phone (hard and cell), fax, address, email, website, facebook, and twitter. Christ, what a damn nuisance. That is 8 different items to remember, log and save. What a life…


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“Internet psychologist Graham Jones predicted…” you’ve got to be kidding me… “Internet Psychologist?!” Talk about your useless career… but an “A” for effort, Graham!


Anyway, I would imagine it is not so much the novelty wearing off, but rather the security risks coming home to roost. The identity theft, the information obtained and used against one (either in court or blackmail), etc. There are so many wrongs with putting personal information out to the general public, that I was always surprised how many people bought into it.


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I am one who deactivated. Just like in FTF meetings, some people just have to hog all the attention and you can’t get a word in edge wise. When people post 10 times in 10 minutes it pushes everything else off the page and you can’t always scroll down to see previous posts. What a waste. There was a purpose in limiting the number of characters in a status! What boors! I have switched to business social networking sites with much greater results.


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