As Facebook opened up its API and apps and widgets flood the shores of the Internet, there is now growing evidence, per Time magazine, that people and companies are becoming "irritated with the Internet". Why irritated? Time says they are irritated with the Internet because it's making people be true, themselves, credible and do good deeds - and Facebook is the web property leading the way at this.
On the note of not being true, credible and not doing good deeds, Time first discusses a company called "WikiScanner" - an application that trolls through the records of Wikipedia, the publicly editable Web-based encyclopedia, and checks on who is making changes to which entries. Turns out they found some "corporate culprits" already. (Wikipedia is a corporate communications dept. dream-come-true given the capability to alter the course of history of a company via its user-generated editing abilities. But, let's remind ourselves that the former Soviet Union used to alter their history books frequently and in the end - particularly on the Internet - information is vetted and democracy prevails.) The Time article.....whose goal is to explain the extraordinary appeal of Facebook...says that Facebook is "really about making the Web grow up." How could a fledgling online social network originally focused on college kids make the entire Internet "grow up"? Time's answer:" Whereas Google is a brilliant technological hack, Facebook is primarily a feat of social engineering."
Social engineering? Sounds catchy. Sounds like the next business jargon we'll hear in all Web 2.0 marketing brochures. Maybe the next big job title: "Robb Hecht, Social Engineer". Sound great. But where's the substance? That's a good question. Time says that Facebook's appeal is "both obvious and rather subtle, " saying it's a website, "but in a sense, it's another version of the Internet itself: a Net within the Net, one that's everything the larger Net is not." A Net within in the Net. Now, voila, there it is. Entirely understandable. I'm sure anyone who has spent any time on Facebook and integrated those widgets they like (read: Facebook gave me the user the option to make my own experience on Facebook; Facebook is not giving me the "Facebook Experience" - Facebook is giving me the tools to experience my own Facebook) would agree the site is sticky and engaging for long periods of time. So, said this way, Facebook indeed does "Grow Up" the Internet. What's entirely fascinating about the site is that users can be themselves on the site - not having to choose some AOL alter-ego screen name like "JohnnyAppleSeed". And, what's the big credibility builder with the site, is that every movement or action you take on the site reinforces you (or potentially damages you?) as a person. Facebook reminds users: "why spend time online being shady?" Be yourself, get ahead, make friends. Time goes on to say that Facebook "constitutes a critical rebalancing of the Internet's founding vision of unfettered electronic liberty," reminding us, as I said above, that it is possible to misbehave on Facebook--it's just "self-defeating."
Summary? Cliffs Notes version? Facebook "grows up" the Internet by focusing it on people, by reminding us to share, and most importantly, reminding people and companies to be true, credible and do good deeds. (Yes, it is Google who owns the brand tag line: "Do No Evil" but per Time magazine, maybe it's actually Facebook who perhaps is actually implementing the theme.)
Social engineering? Sounds catchy. Sounds like the next business jargon we'll hear in all Web 2.0 marketing brochures. Maybe the next big job title: "Robb Hecht, Social Engineer". Sound great. But where's the substance? That's a good question. Time says that Facebook's appeal is "both obvious and rather subtle, " saying it's a website, "but in a sense, it's another version of the Internet itself: a Net within the Net, one that's everything the larger Net is not." A Net within in the Net. Now, voila, there it is. Entirely understandable. I'm sure anyone who has spent any time on Facebook and integrated those widgets they like (read: Facebook gave me the user the option to make my own experience on Facebook; Facebook is not giving me the "Facebook Experience" - Facebook is giving me the tools to experience my own Facebook) would agree the site is sticky and engaging for long periods of time. So, said this way, Facebook indeed does "Grow Up" the Internet. What's entirely fascinating about the site is that users can be themselves on the site - not having to choose some AOL alter-ego screen name like "JohnnyAppleSeed". And, what's the big credibility builder with the site, is that every movement or action you take on the site reinforces you (or potentially damages you?) as a person. Facebook reminds users: "why spend time online being shady?" Be yourself, get ahead, make friends. Time goes on to say that Facebook "constitutes a critical rebalancing of the Internet's founding vision of unfettered electronic liberty," reminding us, as I said above, that it is possible to misbehave on Facebook--it's just "self-defeating."
Summary? Cliffs Notes version? Facebook "grows up" the Internet by focusing it on people, by reminding us to share, and most importantly, reminding people and companies to be true, credible and do good deeds. (Yes, it is Google who owns the brand tag line: "Do No Evil" but per Time magazine, maybe it's actually Facebook who perhaps is actually implementing the theme.)
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