May 24, 2009

The Facebook death rattle

Nothing lasts for long online.

To that end, Mark Lazen at Social Media Today thinks Facebook is doomed and will die a glorious and profitable death in the coming years as its popularity and generality turn it into another calcified AOL.

Lazen writes:
Another challenge that confronts FB as the be-all and end-all of social destinations is that people like variety in their social lives. We like to go to different bars, to different restaurants, to hang out with different sets of friends, just to keep things fresh. FB is on top of the heap right now, and in the world of social apps, that's the same thing as going stale.
Are we really that finicky? Yes. But I'm not sure our real world behavior drives our online habits. Everything here is too new, too shiny to predict what will stay and what will go. We're all gorging at an endless buffet, always anxious to try a new dish and wary of anything that sits out too long.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

People go elsewhere because of the annoying advertising/marketing that becomes more prevalent on a site over time. If MySpace had remained as it was, I'd still be hanging out there.

Anonymous said...

You are right, that is exactly why I left MySpace.