Little bit of history in social media

[matrixmann]

By the way, did anyone take notice that Facebook has now been known broadly for 10 years already?
Sure it's lasted longer than Myspace, after the time of the big hype... And sure this came less expected than it turned out in the reality. As all things that get hyped for some time eventually fall to dust again and get forgotten.
After all the privacy scandals and the revelations about collecting data (never really deleting something you posted), this is quite a bit of miracle - but, maybe, the key here more lies with "there is no alternative offering to theirs". If you wanna head off somewhere else and receive about the same supply, there is none. Nobody's managed to build up something else until today with about the same reach like them who doesn't have this as his behind-the-scenes business model.
So, unless they really make some decisive mistakes in their business policy, count on it being another decade with them. But this second decade you can put under a very strong screening, as making something last for 20 years in the internet really is a feat...

Comments

[poliphilo]

I understand younger people don't use FB much (they prefer Instagram) so I guess its grip is already slackening.

[matrixmann]

Don't know what's the newest craze these days that they use for communication...
To me, all these platforms, FB, YouTube and such, are like the "old world" because of their overcommercialized contents. Because the "normal" person, the stupid little idiot with his personal opinion that may be based or not based on knowledge, I find, you barely - or completely don't - have this around anymore on these platforms.

[benicek.livejournal.com]

As I get older (46) I'm experiencing the commonly-reported illusion that time is passing quicker. Events in my adult life that happened decades ago still feel recent. No surprise there. What is strange is that the big exception to this is the internet and social media. It just feels like we've always had it. Ten years of Facebook? It feels like half a century.

[matrixmann]

I have to remind my brain often too about the time span some event has been ago already. Seeing that it is already close to 10 years or even more, it appears strange that it is that much. It sometimes is like "just happened yesterday". (Just for example: It's weird needing to say that the outbreak of the Iraq war already happened 15 years ago.)
On the other hand, really recent events sometimes appear like "Hasn't that been longer ago?" because fucked up shit happens nearly every day.
In Facebook's case, it really surprises a bit to find them still there because the big hype was many years ago, and after that is over, most platforms take a downward course, which then makes them last no longer than 5 years effectively (not counting the "still up, but a graveyard"-time).
Happened so with Myspace, so why should it be so different?
Not even to mention the couple of scandals the network has seen ever since it has become so popular. Sometimes all it takes is one decisive thing to come out and people leave the ship in a mass exodus...
Well, whoever makes that happen - in the end, when thinking about it some more, I realize this shit has even taken off shortly after my past life's school time was over. My brain can still remembers when Facebook was still a rather underground subject that only a few people had (even musicians and people who really needed a public announcements place for their business).
And I know how much time it is since then.
So then I know, this shit's really been online since a decade already... A decade since it's been that popular thing that it still is. (Timelines say, it exists already for longer than that, but my brain recalls that's about the time since when normal people knew the name this network and since they were crazy for having a profile there.)

[cecille-abril.livejournal.com]

I still miss that old MySpace, my first social net where I got to know so many people from over the world! One day they migrated to Facebook and I refused to follow... I've got an account there later, but never could get used to it. Just don't like it with all its commercials, imposing "friends", poor functioning...
Sad.

[matrixmann]

I think it was popular for a few years, wasn't it?
About the functionality I can't say anything... Never had to do with it. But I think, all the other offsprings, trying to copy the early social media life, must have worked similar to it (those that existed back then)...