My New Years Resolution is to stop using Facebook.
It's not indefinite since there are some friends I'm connected with who use it as their primary means of communication. If I absolutely must contact them then I'll have no choice but to login, but until that day comes I'm done with Facebook. D-O-N-E. I've wasted countless hours doing nothing on that site probably amounting to several weeks worth if not more. While Facebook can be characterized as a social networking tool, I find it to be more of a menacing time vortex where I'm constantly logging in, checking profiles and commenting on aimless blurbs. The worst part about it is when my so-called "friends" socialize with me in this virtual space like we're best buddies yet are inexplicably unable to meet with me in person for even thirty minutes after not seeing each other for over a year. Wow. Seriously?
Look, I know everyone has busy schedules and tons of priorities. I have mine too. But what really started irritating me is how Facebook has become a social crutch for a lot of people out there where they no longer want to interact with people the good old-fashioned way in person. No, they'd rather Facebook someone and apparently it's sufficient.
That's not to say social networking is entirely meretricious. Services such as Meetup, LinkedIn and Apple's Ping have some real intrinsic value through their services, but when the NY Times reports Goldman Sachs valuing Facebook at $50 Billion I can't help but to cry out bullshit.
*standing ovation*
ReplyDelete:-)
yes Facebook really is a big fat time waster. I do like Meetup, because it facilitates social interaction as opposed to replacing it like Facebook.
ReplyDeletePlus I really don't give a shit about what my friends are doing and feeling if they're posting all the time. I hate Twitter too BTW.
nevertheless I use facebook and twitter for marketing purposes.
So I was wrong or the guys on the inside were wrong. CBS News reported, "Financial documents sent out to Goldman Sachs clients reveal that Facebook earned $355 million in net income on $1.2 billion in sales during the first nine months of 2010."
ReplyDeleteThat's a hefty amount, but still overvalued. I think a valuation of $5 billion is a legitimate valuation, but $50 billion is excessive.
James, you bring up an interesting point. Facebook is being used as a marketing tool, but isn't that what MySpace did? Granted Facebook isn't polluting their site with advertisements up the wazoo but when the money starts rolling in, what is going to prevent them from falling into the same trap?
The moment advertisements start to become intrusive on the community the quality of the service will decline and a mass exodus may follow suit. Whoever thought Yahoo! and MySpace would be in the predicament that they are today?