Not too long ago, “Add me on Friendster!" was the likely note to end a conversation on, whether between old friends or even newly acquainted people. In fact, the Philippines has over 13 million active Friendster users, more than any other country in the world.
People used to spend unbelievable amounts of time building their profiles, adding (and rejecting) friend requests, and posting bulletins on Friendster. Some people even had more than one account, because they had too many friends.
“It’s like fast food. You check out a profile, and everything’s there. You know how old the person is, what they look like, their interests –assuming, of course, that they’re telling the truth," says Leah, a former self-confessed Friendster addict.
“I think the testimonials were the number one attraction," Leah adds. “Sometimes, people would send me messages after they had made me a testimonial, asking for a testimonial in return." It was an unwritten rule. I’ll say nice things about you, and you’ll say nice things about me. It was a mutual admiration society – for what no one really knows, but hey it was fun while it lasted.
Friendster’s decline
Friendster’s swan song began in the early part of this decade, when a change of programming language caused a mishap in its server. A lot of users also felt that its revamped interface was too confusing. “Sometimes I would need to find a certain friend, but I couldn’t because the name was something weird, full of xxx’s and characters," shares Keith, who has since abandoned his band’s Friendster profile.
These days, most people have made the exodus from Friendster to newer and hotter social networking sites, particularly Facebook: whereas Friendster currently has 68 million registered users worldwide, Facebook has a whopping 300 million.
Graphics by Mark Merueñas
Facebook manages to keep its users engaged, with people collectively spending more than 8 billion minutes on the site each day worldwide. And while both Friendster and MySpace are vulnerable to spammers because of the ability to change how your page looks, Facebook’s Application Program Interface allows third-party developers to freely and securely create applications on the social network itself.
Facebook: a no-nonsense attraction
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Facebook is its users’ demographic. Whereas most of Friendster’s users in the Philippines are between thirteen to twenty years old, Facebook users include those over fifty-five. Surprisingly enough, Facebook’s fastest growing demographic comes from age 35 years old and above.
Part of the reason behind this may be Facebook’s neat, no-nonsense interface. After all, without the flashy graphics, no one feels too old to be on Facebook. Its clean layout and intuitive search function were big attractions to many people, especially when Friendster, like its trademarked relationship status, “got complicated." People quickly realized that Friendster was getting stale, and it wasn’t difficult to find where everyone had gone.
Persuasive technology
Dr. B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Laboratory at Stanford University and author of an upcoming book on the psychology of Facebook, says that at the heart of Facebook's achievements is “how they tap into some fundamental drives and make it easy to satisfy those drives. Things like the need to be socially accepted and, on the flip side, to not be rejected."
He notes that Facebook is a persuasive technology, an interactive system designed to change human behaviors. Users are persuaded to create an account, upload a photo, update their status, join a cause, among many other things, because of the way Facebook is structured (it prompts you by asking “What are you doing now?" or suggests that you support a cause which five of your friends support) and the way that friends communicate with you, both directly via a private message or indirectly via a wall post or status update. Facebook subtly convinces users to keep their accounts active. Users stay on Facebook because their friends stay on Facebook; otherwise there wouldn’t be much reason to stay.
Addictively engaging, like chismis
The instant gratification that real-time status updates provide satisfies people’s desire for attention, and more. For example, Nino, who works for an advertising agency, has been posting a mini-series of witty one-liners based on his contacts’ status updates. “Facebook is great for microblogging. I don’t have enough time for longer blog entries, and the status updates spread faster. Like chismis," Nino shares.
Once you post a status update, it appears on all your contact’s pages. They don’t have to look for you to see what you’re saying. This works to your advantage, because it makes self-promotion and advertising so much easier and addictively engaging.
“Facebook is great for microblogging. I don’t have enough time for longer blog entries, and the status updates spread faster. Like chismis," Facebook user 'Nino' shares. Photo shows the Facebook account of GMANews.TV news producer Johanna Camille Sisante.
The way some users spend literally all their time on the site has given rise to Facebook Addiction Disorder, a new kind of addiction in which Facebook usage “overtakes" daily activities, according to psychologist Dr. Michael Fenichel.
Psychologist Rob Bedi of the University of Victoria suggests that spending too much time on Facebook may mean something is missing from your life. If Facebook is beginning to interfere with real life, perhaps it’s time for some rehab.
A whole new way of communicating
Nevertheless, Facebook has given us a whole new way of communicating. During the recent devastation from tropical storm Ondoy, Facebook and other social media sites facilitated SOS cries as well as relief efforts and public service announcements.
Facebook has made companies realize that social media is a potent marketing tool. Some employees are actually encouraged to be on Facebook, particularly for those in marketing and public relations. Clearly, new media is fast becoming as valuable as traditional communications media, if not even more so.
“By participating in social media sites, companies can forge relationships, connect and engage their brand’s net-savvy audiences to achieve their most important business goals," writes Karen Galarpe in her blog ‘Open for Business: Why some businesses encourage use of social networking sites.’
Of course, this could also prove to be a disadvantage, as there have been horror stories of people being fired for saying the wrong thing on Facebook. Some companies have even begun to use Facebook and other online social networking sites as part of their screening process for applicants. According to US-based online job site Career Builder, 35 percent of surveyed US employers said that they chose not to hire a candidate based on content they found on a social network, like provocative photos or inappropriate information.
Where to go from here?
Friendster wasn’t as controversial as Facebook, but it was all the rage in its heyday. This makes you wonder: will the same thing happen to Facebook in a couple of years? And if it does, where will everyone go? One wonders how long the site can stay on top. Not surprisingly, Facebook believes that it can churn out innovative new features fast enough to stay ahead in the game. Innovation “has always been at the core of how we view ourselves," Facebook’s company spokesman Larry Yu told The Washington Post recently.
Considering how Facebook has surpassed its primary goal to “help you connect and share with the people in your life," they may just pull it off.
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