Grown Up Thinking

Facebook is celebrating its 6th birthday this week, which seems a good a time as any to reflect on its path to world domination.

Let us not forget Facebook’s humble beginnings as “Thefacebook”. As if they were concerned there could be another one, this was THE facebook for all your networking needs. That is- assuming you’re an ivy leaguer buried in books in the Bay State. May I remind you that at its inception “Thefacebook” was only available to students at Harvard, where creator Mark Zuckerberg held his dorm room brainstorm sessions.

What you may not know is that even before “Thefacebook” there was “Facemash”- a Hot or Not game Zuckerberg created after hacking into Harvard’s computer network and stealing his peers’ student ID photos. “Facemash” generated 450 visitors and 22,000 photo views in its first four hours online.

I still remember the Facebook buzz growing my sophomore year of college- eagerly anticipating my D2 school’s addition to “the list”. This came around the beginning of junior year, my three roommates and I wasting hours of valuable study (and party) time polishing our profiles until they became a sharp snapshot of who we each were (on our best day, of course.)

I clearly remember my attempt to demystify the “poke” and debating with actual, legit friends what the rules were for deciding “Facebook friends”. Today, Facebook has 400 million members and anyone, anywhere over the age of 13 is allowed to join.

This tremendous growth doesn’t look to be slowing either. Membership this year is double what it was on Facebook’s fifth birthday. The social networking powerhouse also blew out the candles with some celebratory changes this week, including a shuffling of menus and an apps and games dashboard.

When I first downloaded Foursquare, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, I’m already a Facebook and Twitter addict- how much more social media can a girl really need? Do my friends even care to know where I am at all times of the day? How often am I supposed to check in? Do I accept all friend requests or only people who I know? Do I really want complete strangers to know where I am?

After much thought, I came to the conclusion that everyone uses Foursquare for different purposes. Here are the five types of Foursquare users I have encountered:

The Cheater: Every Sunday night at 11:59pm EST the Foursquare leaderboard resets. Ever wake up on Monday morning and wonder how one of your friends already has 150 points? The truth is you probably need to get more honest friends, because this friend is a cheater.

The Hungry Tiger: Have any friends on Foursquare who check in at every single place they go- including every subway stop or convenience store? The friend may be classified as “The Hungry Tiger”, someone who can never get enough of Foursquare.

The Hot ‘n’ Cold: I have a few friends like this- those who can’t decide how they really feel about Foursquare. Sometimes they will check in and once they get a badge they quickly turn into The Hungry Tiger, but that rapidly slows down after about a week.

The Commitment-Phobe: This type of user (such as Melvin) has an account, but never uses it. Simple as that.

The Star Performer: This user in my opinion is the ideal Foursquare user. They check in at the appropriate places, such as restaurants and bars, yet refrain from checking in while simply purchasing a pack of gum at the deli across the street.

Given Foursquare’s rapid popularity, users are bound to encounter at least one of the above types. Some people even believe Foursquare could become the next Twitter. Keep your eyes open, folks- this is one social networking bus you won’t want to miss.

When I graduated college, one of my main concerns was how I was going to be able to keep up with all of my friends and family. How would I ever find time in my super busy schedule to call or see all the people I used to have tons of time for? “Facebook Stalking” soon became the most resourceful way to keep tabs on the people in my life. Although e-stalking my friends was easy, I couldn’t help but wonder how social media sites would increase or decrease my social relationships with others in the real world. Why even pick up the phone to call a friend to ask how work is going, when you can see through their Facebook status that they just got promoted? Spend enough time online and before you know it you know everything about everyone, even those who you don’t know!

Some believe that an excess of social media can cause isolation from the real world, but a new study by Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests that social media users are just as social as those who are not frequent users. The study suggests that people who use social media to connect with others not only have a larger network of people to discuss with, but a more diverse network as well. The study claims social media users tend to be more involved in their communities, most likely because online networking raises awareness of events and opportunities they may not have heard about otherwise.

After reading the results of the study, I couldn’t agree more. Through Twitter and Facebook I have met a variety of amazing people from all different types of backgrounds. I guess it pays to be computer geek after all.

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of change. Whenever Facebook rolls out a new design, I’m forced to pretend it doesn’t bother me, because come on, it’s JUST Facebook. Still, I’m not going to deny that Facebook is a significant part of my life, both socially and professionally, so when people start messing with something I’ve grown to know and love, it’s going to spark some serious turmoil.

Let’s take a minute to review the most recent redesign introduced last Friday.

What actually changed? You can now switch between two views, News Feed & Live Feed. Your News Feed is essentially what used to be in the Highlight Section, featuring select pieces of information based on your own/friend’s activity (measured by most commented posts, who you interact with the most, etc).

The Live Feed is a minute-by-minute rundown off all those annoying little things you thought you got away from with the old Facebook (i.e.: new friend updates, events RSVPs, recently added groups/ fan pages, etc). Both the News Feed & Live Feed can be customized to only show that updates you want to see.

Another noticeable change is the Suggestions tab. Rather than just suggesting groups/friends that you may enjoy, Facebook now encourages you to reconnect with users you have not interacted with for a while. This is by far my least favorite change of the redesign as I think it comes of slightly rude (don’t tell me what to do, Facebook) and I’m not alone on this one.

This redesign is getting both positive and negative feedback from users. Facebook explains that they hope the changes will make Facbeook a more valuable experience for you. In the end, this isn’t the last redesign we’ll see and it isn’t the first redesign to get negative feedback.

And let’s be honest. Even with all the negative feedback that first came about when the News Feed first launched, who can really remember what it was like without it? Maybe the ever-so-impolite suggestions tab really will work in connecting me with an old flame that I hadn’t thought about in years. Just one question: will I have to invite Zuckerberg to the wedding?

As the Mr Youth mayor on Foursquare, it is my duty and honor to write this blog post. My first experience with Foursquare was on July 29^th and within this short summer time span, I have become a full-fledged addict. Building off the concept of a location-based social networking application but adding a competitive angle by challenging users to compete against friends to earn points and badges, Foursquare just may be the new Twitter.

The service was created in March 2009 by Dennis Crowley, Harry Heymann and Naveen Selvadurai from its predecessor site, Dodgeball. The premise is simple. You check in at various venues around your major metropolitan city and get awarded points for your activity. Users are awarded badges for various completed tasks. For example, you can earn the School Night Badge (checking in after 3am on a week night) or the ever-coveted and elusive Douchebag badge (I’m not quite sure what you need to do to earn this one, but perhaps Jerpdavis can provide insight). The site takes it’s functionality a step farther than a Google Latitude or Loopt site by adding user-generated To Do and Tips lists, giving users insider information about a particular venue or location.

And just as with all the other social networking sites that I’ve felt strongly about from the very beginning (i.e.: Facebook & Twitter), I am finding myself in heated battles with friends and family defending the value of the site. While I don’t believe Foursquare will gain mainstream popularity like Twitter (my gauge for mass appeal being my mom, who’s on Facebook and at least has a Twitter account, but will never be on Foursquare), I do see the amazing opportunity the site provides.

Beyond it thrilling the social networking dork in me, businesses are now encouraging users to check-in to their venues and are awarding the people with free things (mostly drinks), which is smart. Since the site has the option of pinging both Facebook and Twitter with each check in, every time I go somewhere I am providing free advertising to almost 3,000 of my closest online friends.

Some more background on Foursquare in a great Mashable article by Jennifer Van Grove can be found here.

Social networking site, Twitter, seemed to steal the show during this year’s Super Bowl Sunday. The two major Twitter Super Bowl chat groups received hundreds of Tweets every minute throughout the night. While last year’s Super Bowl ads were blogged about shortly after they aired, this year’s had millions of people instantly display their feedback in 140 characters or less (as is Twitter’s maximum character count) thus providing an accurate and live pulse of the nation (check out this very cool interactive map that displays the most popular words Tweeted during the evening and from where they were sent).

And what better way for a brand to capitalize on this massive audience than having its Super Bowl ad stars Tweet to the masses. Pepsi’s PepSuber, E-Trade’s babies, and H&R Block’s Murray were among the characters who were Tweeting on game day. This type of social networking is proving invaluable for brands because of its impact and because it’s FREE! Because Twitter is an open dialogue it has the ability to connect with consumers more personally than TV spots and having grown over 600% in the last year, it can no longer be ignored by marketers.

Monday, the New York Times launched TimesPeople—a social networking add-on to its website the publication hopes will evolve the media giant into a more robust community of readers in a web-obsessed world.  Obviously a response to the increasing takeover of micromedia channels and alternative media sources, TimesPeople is NYT’s declaration that they’ve joined the party.  But having seen the new feature set in action—perched pleasantly atop nytimes.com—I have to ask: is this just 2.0 lipstick on a 1.0 pig?

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