Facebook rolled out two new features last week. Facebook Mobile allows members to text the site for information like phone numbers and email addresses. Facebook also added a status function to the profiles, where you can leave such profound statements as: "Out at a party, sleeping, or in class."
Facebook is one of the most successful internet networking sites and is constantly updating its features. Recent additions like unlimited photo uploads and Facebook flyer ads only further improve the experience of using the site. But these new features are entirely useless by comparison.
Who is really that addicted to their Facebook profile that they need to be able to access it from their cell phone? Is it really necessary to know the status of your Facebook friends at all times?
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has put the site up for sale. With upwards of 85% of college students using the site, they've got a huge, captive audience to sell off.
These new features are the latest in the trend of synergy. Eventually social networking will blend seamlessly into our cell phones, Internet and television. A future where real social interaction is replaced by the artificial world of the Facebook is terrifying.
Tracy Steel @ Tue, 04/18/2006 - 9:31pm
I don't necessarily think that sites like Facebook will replace real social interaction, but it definitely does help. Just a minute ago I got an invite to a friend's birthday party on Facebook--that must have saved her lots of time, where she normally would have had to make lots of calls or told people in person one by one. But posting an event of Facebook is so much simpler--she knows everyone is going to see it (because who doesn’t check Facebook every 5 minutes when “studying”), and she can see who’s coming and who’s not. Think of is as an extended personal organizer.
Plus, how many times have journalism kids used Facebook for interviewees? It’s like it’s laid out for you--if you’re doing a story about how large sunglasses are a new trend on campus, there’s a Facebook group for that.
But yes, some people do take it a bit too far with the mobile features, like Dan said earlier about Gawker mobile. But my point is, if used in moderation, these sites aren’t all bad.