To Quit or Not to Quit? Facebook that is!
Facebook is no stranger to scrutiny in the media and the recent “Quit Facebook Day” campaign has been receiving a fair bit of media attention. The campaign is in protest to the privacy setting changes which are continually being made on the Facebook Social Networking platform without actually notifying users.
Facebook is the number one Social Networking platform, and has active users all around the world totaling close to 500 million. The “Quit Facebook Day” campaign has been promoted as having more than half of the active users saying they will quit because of the privacy changes – when in reality only 15,000 have committed, which is 0.00003% of all users.
It doesn’t appear that there are enough people committed to quitting for there to be any actual merit behind the campaign. Facebook does provide users with a great tool for communicating with people; however, users need to be better informed about the platform, and realize that anything posted on the internet is still on the internet.
Facebook has both personal and business benefits. For personal use, Facebook is useful to keep in touch with friends and family around the world. In addition, the platform can be used tremendously well for businesses which are looking to weed through millions of internet users to find specific people interested in their product.
Yes, there will always be concerns with regards to social networking sites and privacy, but it is both the users and developers responsibility to stay informed and understand the full affect of what they are doing online.
So the question is, to quit or not to quit? For myself and the majority of people I have talked to, the answer is – not to quit!
For more information on Facebook Privacy Settings:
- Facebook Privacy Policy – http://www.facebook.com/privacy.php
- Answers from Facebook settings – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052303828.html
- Quit Facebook Day – http://www.quitfacebookday.com/
2 Comments
Comment by Mike — May 25, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
I would agree – no quitting for me, but that’s not to say that I think Facebook will always remain the market leader, and it’s definitely not to say that it couldn’t stand to improve on a few things.
Like you mentioned, privacy issues will always be an issue as Facebook looks to monetize its site as best it can, but at the same time it has to stay privy to what its users want. Isn’t that what social media/networking sites are all about anyway? Going against that would be hypocritical of Facebook, but that doesn’t mean it won’t make mistakes. It has done so (make mistakes) in the past and it will continue to do so in the future. What’s critical to Facebook’s reputation, I think , is its responses to these (and future) mistakes.
With Beacon Zuckerberg was quick to post an apology, but in this instance he was seemingly last to the table (he did say he would be improving the privacy controls in the coming weeks/months though). He needs to stay on top of what the users are saying because they are what makes his site so valuable. Without the users there would be no information to turn around and give to third parties. I honestly think he is becoming a bit detached from his audience, hence the delays in his reactions to Facebook’s troubles.
I think that if Facebook continues to stumble with its response strategy, and a formidable opponent emerges, despite Facebook’s large switching costs (ie: people’s personal information) it could be dethroned. I mean, after all, how many people saw MySpace’s dominance being challenged when it was the market leader? Not many, but sooner than later it fell from its #1 spot.
Cool post though. Great food for thought
Comment by Andy Donovan — May 27, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
For me the key is comfort and control…yes Facebook feels that sharing more and more of your private information is a good thing – for Facebook and the marketplace – however I think like any social networking site you have to take some ownership on what you share online – status, photos and so on.
Since there has yet to be a true challenger for Facebook (rumblings about Diaspora aside) no need to “quit” the only social networking site that all of your friends are still on and engaging with each other…until then just keep an eye on your online image and what is being shared and have a plan to address. Great post. Cheers,
Andy
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