Originally published February 9 2013
More people bailing out of Facebook; is a FB collapse imminent?
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) Facebook caught on fast and furious to become the premier social networking platform in the world. In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg, depicted in the movie "The Social Network" as a brash Harvard sophomore who cared not about others' thoughts and/or feelings, started a social networking interface called Facemash.
Facemash was initially for Harvard students. It's name soon morphed into TheFacebook. Mark inspired technical help and financing from three other Harvard students who eventually sued him after TheFacebook became simply Facebook and went well beyond Harvard's campus with investors' money attached.
Zuckerberg settled with those other three students. Everyone made money, especially Mark. As Facebook's popularity grew, other dot-com groups and individuals started buying shares at high prices, raising Facebook's value. Then Mark started selling shares of Facebook publicly in 2012.
A cyberspace tower of babble
Despite Facebook's business applications and providing a networking platform to various activists for social, environmental, and health reform, a large part of the billions of worldwide users who have contributed to Facebook's one trillion visits engage in narcissistic nonsense.
A lot of the photos and videos uploaded are simply snippets of people's personal life. Or sharing a thought or photo of someone's favorite celebrity, pet or girlfriend, even posting gossip. This was pretty much the original intent of Harvard's Facemash.
Starting a Facebook account requires some input into a profile, which can include listing favorite books, music, and movies. Seems nice at first, but with its vast, easy instant message capability, Facebook can become rather bothersome with a large enough roster of user friends.
A couple of years ago, an episode of the TV cartoon sitcom "The Simpsons" featured Bart and Lisa, the Simpson kids, stressing over answering messages from relatives and others. The stress of being obligated to respond to instant messages from several sources was highlighted in that episode.
From Natural News writer David Gutierrez: "Spending time on Facebook ranked among the 10 worst activities in terms of unpleasantness and lack of engagement. It was ranked as the least meaningful activity and the one that made people the second-most unhappy, surpassed only by recovering from illness." (http://www.naturalnews.com/038134_facebook_stress_unhappy.html)
Many became too preoccupied to function normally, or were too concerned about others' ability to check in and read their Facebook materials. Some studies determined that users could feel inferior after viewing others' pages depicting happier, more successful lifestyles.
Others were concerned about work superiors', teachers', and parents' ability to snoop into their private lives by visiting their Facebook page. Only an estimated one-third of Facebook users apply the privacy settings. Then there are the truthers' and activists' concerns of Big Brother peaking into their pages.
Then there are the friends of friends who add to the stress of what to say or what not to say.
But the narcissistic aspect of Facebook is annoying for many users, causing more to drop out of using Facebook temporarily or permanently. More and more users are getting tired of trying to acknowledge unsolicited Facebook friends reporting shopping sprees, what they had for dinner where, and "look at my new" whatever.
As those disenchanted numbers grow, some analysts are looking at the possibility of Facebook's bubble bursting. Apparently, it is better to have a few good close real friends than a multitude of virtual acquaintances crashing your site.
True enough on a personal level, but for businesses, entrepreneurial opportunists, and truth seeking activists who can't show and tell what they want to share in their own real communities, the virtual community of Facebook is a boon.
Maybe adopting Mark's perceived attitude of not caring what others think, say, or feel can help you navigate Facebook for productive use without stressing.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/06/is_facebook_over/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#History
http://www.informationweek.com
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