Facebook: Has It Outlived Its Usefulness?
If you were once a Facebook user who responded to every message you received, played the little mind-numbing games only to find they no longer interest you, there is a chance that you are suffering from ‘Facebook’ fatigue. Even though Facebook has experienced phenomenal growth over the last year, many people are now of the view that face book has outlived its usefulness as they begin to feel the effects of social networking overload.
While face book has been credited for being a great way of networking with like minded people and keeping in touch with close friends and family, a large proportion of people feel that it can be a time snatcher. People admit to spending a lot of time navigating around, checking out other peoples’ profiles and looking at pictures. It is estimated that at least 52% of people in the work place stay signed onto Facebook. Should employers be worried about productivity as the world economies starts to slowly come out of recession? (Read: Women and the recession)
Most work places have banned the use of Facebook among their employees. It is now common practice to hear of companies spending millions of pounds on software to block their employees from accessing videos and social networking sites. Inversely, contrary to the belief that social networking sites are disruptive at work, a study by the University of Melbourne in Australia recently showed that people who use the internet for personal reasons were at least 9 per cent more productive than those who don’t. The author of the study, Brent Coker, mentioned that “people need to zone out for a bit to get their concentration back.” Some businesses have taken note of this positive effect and a handful of them are using Facebook as a motivational tool for their workers.
Depending on who you talk to, Facebook remains a hub of information for people of all ages. Even though it has been likened to a crowded night-club where everyone wants to be seen, it is now being used by many firms to reach particular markets they wish to target with their brands. Because of it’s appeal among a certain age group mostly 18 – 24, it has proved to be a great platform for youth oriented businesses. They establish a presence by creating fan pages – Nike for instance has almost 2 million fans – which are indirectly linked to their websites and highly coveted products. (See Nike’s and Abercrombie’s Facebook profiles)
However one chooses to look at it, there is a growing belief that the aura of Facebook has worn off a bit and only caters for peoples’ voyeuristic tendencies. For now, it remains one of the most popular networking sites and with the recent surge in numbers of Smartphones – with their plethora of neat apps – coming on to the market, social networking sites should experience a wave of renewed interest.
Interesting Links: Twitter chief looks to mobile for future, Food for your brain
