MySpace. Facebook. Friendster. etc. What makes them such internet successes?
The internet primary uses are what I call the Internet's Big Three:
1. to Inform, Communicate, and Connect
2. to Distract and Entertain
3. to Waste Time (see number 2)
Most of your online activities probably fall in some way into these three things. News, blogs, online stores, videos, gossip, email are all ways of getting information, communicating and connecting, or just plain being distracted. Social networking sites are really no different. They inform you what your friends are up to, what your favorite bands and other groups are doing, they let you communicate and connect and have an online presence, and they give endless hours of distraction, entertainment, and wasted time.
But the real question is, why are MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster so popular. Why do so many people spend so much time browsing around on these sites, "poking" people, messaging, posting photos. In reality, everything you can do on a social networking site, you could do before a single piece of code for Friendster was written. You can still do all these things on the internet without a social networking sites. People were sending emails to inform, communicate, and connect with eachother, building personal websites, posting photos, and of course wasting time well before anyone had heard the term online social networking. Of course the internet and email let's you do all of this, without creating a Facebook account. But you won't see me sending my friend's an email message which says "poke".
So why is online social networking so successful? They are successful because they organize, integrate, and present all this content and features that already existed on the internet into a way that people can digest, understand, makes sense, and feels comfortable and seamless. It's akin to what Apple sells in their computers, which don't do anything different than you can do on a Windows machine with the right software. But Apple integrates all your digital tasks into a seamless environment, that is presented in a way that makes sense and is easy to use. The best social networking sites do essentially the same thing. They are a hub for your social networking activities, things like sending messages, posting photos, keeping updated and connected with friends and colleagues, and the most successful sites do it in a way that is as seamless and easy to use as an iMac or an iPod, and with a lot of ways to waste time.
